NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Ensuring that nursing home staff get their flu shots may help prevent potentially deadly outbreaks among elderly residents, a new study suggests.In a survey of more than 300 US nursing homes, researchers found that flu outbreaks were less likely in facilities where most residents and staff members were vaccinated against the virus.

Because influenza can have deadly complications for the elderly and chronically ill, most nursing home residents routinely get a flu shot.

However, research shows that vaccinating residents alone is not enough because the flu shot is generally less effective in the elderly than in healthy younger adults. This is particularly true of older adults with chronic diseases.

The timely findings suggest that both nursing home staff and residents have to be vaccinated in order to make a significant difference in residents’ influenza risk.

“Staff in the facilities are in contact with the outside world and can bring things in,” said lead study author Lisa R. Shugarman, of the non-profit research organisation RAND Corporation.

“The bottom line is that getting residents and staff immunised really goes hand-in-hand,” she told Reuters Health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already recommends that all healthcare workers get a flu shot every year, but studies have found that many do not.

In their study, Shugarman and her colleagues found that on average, 41 percent of nursing home staff got a flu shot during the 2004-2005 flu season. Clusters of “influenza-like illness” were 60 percent less likely to occur in facilities where more than 89 percent of residents and 55 percent of staff were vaccinated.

Though the study didn’t look at why nursing home staff often go without a flu shot, Shugarman said there are a number of potential reasons. In years where the flu vaccine supply is limited, for example, facilities will give residents priority in receiving the shot, while employees may remain unvaccinated.

In addition, Shugarman noted, some nursing homes may not offer staff the vaccine for free, which could present an obstacle for some employees.

“We need to find ways to get around the barriers to vaccination,” Shugarman said.

The current findings, she noted, should provide incentive for facilities to boost their staff vaccination rates.