75% of doctors, or 3 out of 4, are in favor of introducing the mandatory flu vaccine for health professionals.
To highlight this is a study published in the authoritative journal Vaccine, the result of a review of the world scientific literature conducted by Maria Rosaria Gualano of the Department of Public Health and Pediatric Sciences of the University of Turin, led by Roberta Siliquini.
The flu is a frequent infectious disease in winter and in some cases can cause major complications, especially in the elderly and chronically ill.
Influenza vaccination for healthcare professionals is one of the recommended interventions to protect not only themselves but also high-risk patients.
"Over the last few months - explains the University of Turin - the Group has analyzed a large number of international scientific articles, more than 7,000, concerning influenza vaccination, with the aim of assessing how many health workers approved the introduction of the obligation vaccination for the category.
The opinion of doctors, nurses, socio-health workers, technicians of the health professions and students, as well as of the administrative figures working in hospitals was considered. "The results show that overall 61% are in favor of the obligation, with some distinctions : the percentage grows to 69% if we consider the operators of the Asian continent, while it is 62% in America and 54% in Europe. Analyzing the individual categories, 75% of doctors in the world say they are in favor, while among the nurses, the percentage of those who agree drops to 41%. The most favorable are the students of Medicine and other health professions: 80% agree with the obligation. "The results - the authors note - are relevant in light of the vaccination campaign undertaken against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even if at the moment it does not seem like a hypothesis under discussion, it is not excluded that in the future there will be a return to talk of obligation if the percentages reached are insufficient to guarantee the stop to the spread of the virus ".
(ANSA).
