the transmission of flu is predominantly by respiratory droplets so things that
we cough out that people inhale. We can also spread influenza by
contact with surfaces and hands so hand-washing and those sorts of things
are important. Then of course in the hospital environment we can also have
transmission between patients and staff and staff and patients and that hospital
transmission is an issue. I think the reduction of transmission by healthcare
workers falls into a couple of areas the first is getting vaccinated before the
influenza season is on us so vaccination for example March April May before the
flu season in winter will reduce the transmission in the hospital environment
and indeed in the community. The other area where transmission can be reduced
is during the influenza season and indeed at any other time particular care
is taken with hand washing with cough etiquette mask use all of those sorts of
things that the infection control practitioners in the hospital tell
everybody about. Influenza and illnesses like that which fit people tend to
tolerate often really make someone who has got some other problem, like a heart
failure or a bit of kidney failure or something can often just be too much and
they end up critically ill, so certainly in the intensive care we see in every
winter we see influenza admissions, who've got a nasty
viral infection that affects the lungs but also other organ systems failing as
a result of the stress of the infection and in 2009 as everybody would remember
the critical care structures of Australia nearly collapsed under the
weight of the swine flu epidemic. Well unfortunately we're all a little bit
exposed to the infections that we deal with and no matter how hard we try
there's still a small risk of us acquiring infections from the people we
look after and there's no doubt that you can catch flu at work. In fact the
transmission at work is probably mostly between staff rather than from patients
to staff and sadly often from staff to patients and that's why vaccination is
just so important to try and control that dynamic. The flu is a very
serious illness in children people tend to think of it as being associated with
adults but it can be very very serious in children the flu sends somewhere
around ten percent of children to the ICU of those children who are
hospitalized every year of course there are children who are particularly
vulnerable such as oncology patients very small infants particularly those in
our neonatal intensive care units and children with other underlying disease
influenza in the patients who are immunosuppressed including those who are
taking drugs that suppress their immune system or who have diseases that affect
their immune system can often develop very severe manifestations of influenza
they have much higher rates of needing to come to a hospital
and very high rates also much higher rates of needing intensive care and
support for their breathing so it is really critical that health care workers
do get vaccinated because we do know that outbreaks that have occurred in the
health setting in particular may actually result from
healthcare workers bringing the infection into the workplace