On Oct. 25, Governor Rod Blagojevich announced that he has asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve a plan to buy 30,000 doses of the flu vaccine from a wholesaler in the United Kingdom to be administered to the state’s nursing home residents.

The Illinois Council on Long Term Care, an association of nursing home professionals, applauds the Governor for taking proactive steps to provide flu vaccine to our state’s 100,000 nursing home residents. These frail and elderly individuals are an extremely high-risk population that is in desperate need of this vaccine. Without this vaccine, thousands of nursing home residents are in real danger of becoming severely ill this flu season.

Because elderly individuals are so at risk, we implore your readers to only visit nursing homes if they are healthy. If anyone has any flu-like symptoms, please stay away. There are other ways to keep in touch with your loved ones, including by calling them and sending them letters and cards.

If family members and friends are visiting residents at a nursing home, we encourage them to wash their hands or use hand gel sanitizer before coming in contact with the frail elderly. Until these residents receive their vaccines, they are in extreme danger of becoming ill from any visitors who are carrying the flu virus.

The campaign to find flu vaccines for our state’s nursing home population must be a top priority for the FDA and our state’s public health department. During the next few months, we ask everyone to be extra cautious when visiting nursing homes to protect this very fragile population.

Terrence Sullivan

Executive Director
Illinois Council on Long Term Care