Attitudes and behavior of health care personnel regarding influenza vaccination

This paper reports the results of a study conducted by the Italian Association for Immune-prophylaxis promotion (AIPI) with the aim of surveying the attitudes and perceptions of Italian health care workers regarding the use and efficacy of influenza vaccine. The results clearly show that a high proportion of the questioned health care workers showed a general lack of concern about the severity of the disease. Doubts about vaccine efficacy and fear of post-vaccination side effects were also observed to have an important influence on the vaccination acceptance rates. These data underline the need for a systematic education program to provide influenza vaccination within the public and private health-care sectors in Italy.