The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, in a scientific advisory, are asking heart doctors to administer flu shots to their patients, but not to give the nasal-spray flu vaccine to patients with cardiovascular disease.

This is because patients with cardiovascular disease are more likely to die from influenza than patients with any other chronic condition.

While studies have already found that annual flu vaccinations can prevent death in adults and children with chronic conditions of the cardiovascular system, only 1 in 3 adults with cardiovascular disease was given flu vaccine in 2005.

According to Matthew M. Davis, M.D., lead author of the advisory and associate professor of pediatrics, internal medicine, and public policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor:

"If we vaccinated at least 60 percent of the 13.2 million people with coronary heart disease in the United States against influenza, we could prevent hundreds of deaths and thousands of cases of flu each year.

"The target goal set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is to vaccinate 60 percent of people with heart disease under age 65, and 90 percent of everyone 65 and over, many of whom have heart disease."

Cardiovascular disease patients are particularly vulnerable (to influenza) because the flu can directly worsen heart disease symptoms that may lead to conditions like viral or bacterial pneumonia, thereby flaring up the cardiovascular condition.

Influenza tends to make people with heart disease even sicker than others who are healthy, and increases the chance of having to go to the hospital, added Dr. Davis.

The said scientific advisory urging:

• Cardiologists to stock flu vaccine for their patients in their clinics and strongly encourage influenza immunization.
• Patients with cardiovascular disease to get a flu vaccination (given by injection) every year by the end of November. Receiving a shot in January or even later should still protect from flu, as the flu season in the United States typically peaks in January, February or March.
• Patients with cardiovascular disease not receive the live, attenuated vaccine given as a nasal spray. The live vaccine can cause influenza in this high-risk population.

...is published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association and Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Cardiovascular patient or not, flu vaccine should be administered annually before the flu season peaks.

Read the full press release at American Heart Association.