The Department of Health did try to encourage area health authorities to vaccinate their staff this year, but I'm not sure all that many already do. We have all been a bit relaxed about it. The researchers examined almost 1,500 elderly patients in a variety of hospitals. They found that 102 out of 749 died in those which encouraged vaccination, whereas 154 out of 688 died in those which did not. However, despite this difference, overall proportion of patients infected with flu did not differ between them.
Flu is one of the leading causes of death in elderly people during the winter months.
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