Knowledge, practice and approaches of health professionals to adverse events following immunization and their reporting in Albania

In Albania, the reporting of an adverse events following immunization (AEFI) is done not only by immunization providers but also from clinicians providing clinical treatment of AEFI in health posts, health centers and private or public hospitals. The AEFI reporting system in Albania has started in 2001 with the establishment of National Regulatory Authority of Vaccines in the Institute of Public Health. The most important problems of passive surveillance systems include underreporting, deficiency and inaccuracy of information. A structured questionnaire containing 68 questions constructed from immunization experts constituted the study tool. The questionnaire addressed health professionals working at child consultant’s facilities and primary health centers in the district of Tirana. There were a total of 102 health professional interviewed. The majority of the respondents working at health centers in the district of Tirana in general, had poor knowledge levels on AEFI surveillance. The lowest score were received in knowledge about the role of different stakeholders involved in AEFI surveillance. The number of years practicing the profession did not influence in the total score of “practice and attitude toward reporting and managing an AEFI”. Although the majority of health care professionals have encountered an AEFI during their practice (72/102, 70,5%), only half of them have never reported an AEFI (37/102, 36,2%). Barriers to reporting included lack of interest, unclear definition of AEFI and lack of awareness of what to report. Nevertheless, the main reason for not reporting was because a respondent thought he or she had not observed an AEFI in the last years (44,1%). Majority of the respondents did not have any training about AEFI (68,6%, 70/102). From this study it is concluded that it is necessary to develop training and educational programs in order to increase awareness of all health professionals involved in child health toward reporting of adverse events following immunization. It is necessary to build feedback systems to give information on AEFI. This study shows the influence of knowledge, perceptions and practices of health care workers in the surveillance of adverse events following immunization. Thus, information generated from this study might be valuable for the public health regulators to generate new guidelines about AEFI surveillance and update existing information.