Health Care Workers: Vectors of Influenza Virus? Low Vaccination Rate among Hospital Health Care Workers

The influenza vaccination rate among health care workers is not very high and needs to be improved. The authorities of our university hospital decided to encourage vaccination among health care workers and to include it in the hospital quality of care program. A survey about knowledge of influenza disease and its vaccination was undertaken, and 37.2% of the workers participated in the survey. Among them, 31.8% were vaccinated. The vaccination rate was higher when workers were older, men, physicians, technicians, or laboratory workers, vaccinated in the previous flu season and had fewer contacts with patients. The variables with the highest impact on the vaccination rate were vaccination the previous year, belief that vaccination is highly effective, and affirmation that prevention is important. Our study shows that an active vaccination campaign is also necessary for health workers to put them in the stream of usually vaccinated people.