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Immunization Status against Measles of Health-Care Workers Operating at Three Sicilian University Hospitals: An Observational Study

Measles is a highly contagious vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) that also commonly affects health-care workers (HCWs). Measles immunization of HCWs was strongly recommended by international health authorities, in order to limit the spreading of the illness to susceptible patients and colleagues. An...

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Autores principales: Costantino, Claudio, Ledda, Caterina, Genovese, Cristina, Contrino, Eleonora, Vitale, Ermanno, Maida, Carmelo Massimo, Squeri, Raffaele, Vitale, Francesco, Rapisarda, Venerando
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6963751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31684158
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines7040175
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author Costantino, Claudio
Ledda, Caterina
Genovese, Cristina
Contrino, Eleonora
Vitale, Ermanno
Maida, Carmelo Massimo
Squeri, Raffaele
Vitale, Francesco
Rapisarda, Venerando
author_facet Costantino, Claudio
Ledda, Caterina
Genovese, Cristina
Contrino, Eleonora
Vitale, Ermanno
Maida, Carmelo Massimo
Squeri, Raffaele
Vitale, Francesco
Rapisarda, Venerando
author_sort Costantino, Claudio
collection PubMed
description Measles is a highly contagious vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) that also commonly affects health-care workers (HCWs). Measles immunization of HCWs was strongly recommended by international health authorities, in order to limit the spreading of the illness to susceptible patients and colleagues. An observational study, evaluating the immunization and vaccination status against measles of HCWs working at three Sicilian university hospitals, was conducted. All subjects not completely immune (vaccinated with only one dose in their lifetime), not immune (not vaccinated or not naturally immunized), and with an unknown immunization status were considered not immunized. Among HCWs operating in the three Sicilian university hospitals, 54.6% were not immune against measles. The average age of not immune HCWs was 51.3 (SD ± 9.8), ranging between 25 and 71 years old. In particular, 46.9% of HCWs not immunized worked in “at-risk” hospital units, based on medical conditions of patients which increases the probability of contracting an infection. Vaccination coverage rates observed against measles are considerably lower than other European countries and inadequate. It is therefore crucial to tackle vaccine hesitancy among HCWs, promoting strategies targeted to evaluate immunization status against VPDs and to significantly increase vaccine coverages, such as tailored training and vaccination offer or compulsory vaccination programs.
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spelling pubmed-69637512020-01-27 Immunization Status against Measles of Health-Care Workers Operating at Three Sicilian University Hospitals: An Observational Study Costantino, Claudio Ledda, Caterina Genovese, Cristina Contrino, Eleonora Vitale, Ermanno Maida, Carmelo Massimo Squeri, Raffaele Vitale, Francesco Rapisarda, Venerando Vaccines (Basel) Article Measles is a highly contagious vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) that also commonly affects health-care workers (HCWs). Measles immunization of HCWs was strongly recommended by international health authorities, in order to limit the spreading of the illness to susceptible patients and colleagues. An observational study, evaluating the immunization and vaccination status against measles of HCWs working at three Sicilian university hospitals, was conducted. All subjects not completely immune (vaccinated with only one dose in their lifetime), not immune (not vaccinated or not naturally immunized), and with an unknown immunization status were considered not immunized. Among HCWs operating in the three Sicilian university hospitals, 54.6% were not immune against measles. The average age of not immune HCWs was 51.3 (SD ± 9.8), ranging between 25 and 71 years old. In particular, 46.9% of HCWs not immunized worked in “at-risk” hospital units, based on medical conditions of patients which increases the probability of contracting an infection. Vaccination coverage rates observed against measles are considerably lower than other European countries and inadequate. It is therefore crucial to tackle vaccine hesitancy among HCWs, promoting strategies targeted to evaluate immunization status against VPDs and to significantly increase vaccine coverages, such as tailored training and vaccination offer or compulsory vaccination programs. MDPI 2019-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC6963751/ /pubmed/31684158 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines7040175 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Costantino, Claudio
Ledda, Caterina
Genovese, Cristina
Contrino, Eleonora
Vitale, Ermanno
Maida, Carmelo Massimo
Squeri, Raffaele
Vitale, Francesco
Rapisarda, Venerando
Immunization Status against Measles of Health-Care Workers Operating at Three Sicilian University Hospitals: An Observational Study
title Immunization Status against Measles of Health-Care Workers Operating at Three Sicilian University Hospitals: An Observational Study
title_full Immunization Status against Measles of Health-Care Workers Operating at Three Sicilian University Hospitals: An Observational Study
title_fullStr Immunization Status against Measles of Health-Care Workers Operating at Three Sicilian University Hospitals: An Observational Study
title_full_unstemmed Immunization Status against Measles of Health-Care Workers Operating at Three Sicilian University Hospitals: An Observational Study
title_short Immunization Status against Measles of Health-Care Workers Operating at Three Sicilian University Hospitals: An Observational Study
title_sort immunization status against measles of health-care workers operating at three sicilian university hospitals: an observational study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6963751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31684158
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines7040175
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