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Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Effectiveness and Compliance among Hospital Health Care Workers

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  • Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Effectiveness and Compliance among Hospital Health Care Workers

    Isr Med Assoc J. 2016 Jan;18(1):5-9.
    Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Effectiveness and Compliance among Hospital Health Care Workers.

    Atamna Z, Chazan B, Nitzan O, Colodner R, Kfir H, Strauss M, Schwartz N, Markel A.
    Abstract

    BACKGROUND:

    Recent studies show that vaccination of health care workers (HCW) might reduce influenza transmission and mortality among hospitalized patients. No studies have compared the incidence of laboratory-proven influenza in vaccinated versus unvaccinated hospital HCW.
    OBJECTIVES:

    To evaluate the effectiveness of influenza vaccination among hospital HCW and to examine the attitudes of this population towards influenza vaccination.
    METHODS:

    We performed a prospective cohort study between 1 January and 30 April 2014 of 1641 HCW at our medical center; 733 were vaccinated and 908 were not. A random sample of 199 subjects was obtained: 97 vaccinated and 102 non-vaccinated. Participating individuals were contacted on a weekly basis during the flu season and were asked to report any respiratory or flu symptoms and, if positive, to undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for influenza. Results: In the general HCW population vaccination was more frequent among physicians (298/498, 58%) than among nurses (324/862, 38%) and among males than females. Flu symptoms were reported by 20 of 199 participants, 13 in the non-vaccinated group (12.7%) and 7 in the vaccinated group (7.2%). A positive PCR test for influenza A virus was present in 4 of 20 people tested (20%). All positive cases were from the non-vaccinated group (P = 0.0953).
    CONCLUSIONS:

    Non-vaccinated HCW showed a higher, although not statistically significant, tendency for contracting laboratory-proven influenza than the vaccinated population. The main reasons for vaccination and non-vaccination were personal beliefs and habits. Education efforts are needed to improve compliance. Larger studies could further clarify this issue.


    PMID: 26964271 [PubMed - in process] Free full text
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