Susceptibility and Vaccination Coverage of Vaccine Preventable Diseases among Health Care Workers in a Paediatric Tertiary Hospital, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

Health-care workers (HCWs) represent a high risk group for acquiring vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). Objective: to determine susceptibility and vaccination coverage rates against VPDs among a group of health care workers in a tertiary care paediatric hospital, Egypt. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted at the Paediatric hospital of the Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University from July 2017 to November 2017. A Structured self-administered questionnaire including Socio-demographic characteristics, exposure to occupational VPDs infections and vaccination coverage was used. Results: Out of the 110 HCWs enrolled, 50.0% were physicians, 34.5% were nurses and 15.5% were house keepers. The reported vaccination coverage rate was highest for Tuberculosis (95.5%) followed by Hepatitis B (86.4%) and lowest for chickenpox (9.1%). HCWs reporting no history of disease or vaccination were considered as “potentially susceptible HCWs”: 69.1% to rubella, 63.6 % to mumps, 58.2% to measles, 54.5% to chickenpox, 13.5% to hepatitis B and 1.8% to tuberculosis. The main reasons for non-immunization were lack of vaccine provision by the hospital (from 63.6% for influenza to 53.5% for hepatitis B), lack of knowledge of vaccine recommendation (from 89.5% MMR to 43.2%% for influenza), fear of vaccine side effects (from 33.3% for hepatitis B to 4.5% for influenza) and 10.2% reported that they don’t get influenza vaccine because they think that it is not a serious disease. Compared with nurses and housekeepers, physicians were more likely to have been vaccinated for hepatitis B, MMR and chickenpox (P < 0.01). Conclusion: The current study revealed that the vaccination coverage for most of the VPDs is generally below expectations. Raising awareness of the recommended vaccines in addition to providing them free of charge or at a reduced price by the hospital administration can improve the vaccination coverage among HCWs.

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