Flu risk higher for workers of certain industries

Workers in certain industries appear to have a notable higher risk of catching influenza than counterparts working in other sectors, findings suggest. A new report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that certain workplaces can have positive or negative effects on the risk of flu among workers. “[T]his information is needed for recognizing and responding to increased risks for infection among key occupational groups (e.g., health care workers, school teachers, retail and food service workers, and others with substantial exposure to the general public),” the authors wrote. A study of 3,365 US of hospitalization cases during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic revealed that health care workers had the highest risk of developing the flu with 16 percent of hospital admission. Admission rates were 12 percent for retail workers, 9 percent for those working with accommodation services and 10 percent for people working in the food service sector. Findings also revealed that workers of the transportation and warehousing industries had the highest proportion of employees admitted to hospital due to flu. Airline workers, postal employees, and bus drivers had over a 1.5 times higher rates of hospitalization for flu than the average worker. The risk was almost the same for travel agents, janitors, secretaries, and other employees in the administrative and support services, and waste management and remediation services. Health care workers followed closely on the list. The rate of admissions was not higher for educators compared with the average worker. Researchers suggested that overrepresentation of an industry sector might be related to demographic and underlying health characteristics of the sector’s work force that put them at an increased risk for acquiring influenza and being hospitalized with influenza. The risk may also partially reflect occupational risk factors for influenza such as exposure to ill members of the public and higher smoking rates. Such factors, however, can’t account for all the hospitalizations, authors concluded. “[M]ore research is needed to understand the reasons for the increased incidence of severe influenza among specific groups of workers,” they added. “Concurrently, any interventions that focus on these groups of workers should be evaluated for effectiveness and efficiency.”