Highlights
- •Influenza vaccination has limited efficacy in cancer patients.
- •Caregiver and family vaccination is recommended for high-risk patients.
- •Distance, age, and limited time decreased vaccine uptake in caregivers and family.
- •Efforts targeting vaccination for caregivers and family of cancer patients are needed.
Cancer patients are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality from seasonal influenza
but are known to respond poorly to influenza vaccination. This single-center survey
suggests that approximately one-third of cancer patients and their caregivers and
family did not receive the vaccine in the prior season. Patients felt strongly that
caregiver vaccination was important, whereas caregivers’ decisions did not appear
to be affected by the patients’ disease.
Key Words
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References
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 04, 2018
Footnotes
Previous presentation: Data from this manuscript were presented in part at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology annual meeting in Nashville, TN, June 2015.
Conflicts of interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
