# 3669
In what is turning out to be a distressingly familiar story, we learn of another study where a majority of HCWs (Health Care Workers) would forego taking a pandemic vaccination out of fears of adverse side effects.
This sentiment is shared by a good percentage of the public, as well. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve had other studies on this issue, which I covered in :
With the HHS relying heavily on the public, and no less importantly HCWs, accepting a vaccine this fall, these studies are no doubt worrisome.
While I understand some of the concerns being expressed, particularly among those who would be offered an adjuvanted vaccine, many of the fears I’ve heard expressed seem over-the-top.
An unadjuvanted split virus vaccine should be no more dangerous with the novel H1N1 virus than any other seasonal flu vaccine.
Are side effects possible? Sure. But they are unlikely to rise to anywhere near the dangers posed by contracting the virus.
The links in the BMJ excerpt aren’t working as I write this entry, but should be `live’ shortly.
Research
Willingness of Hong Kong healthcare workers to accept pre-pandemic influenza vaccination at different WHO alert levels
Two questionnaire surveys conducted at WHO pandemic alert phases 3 and 5 found a consistently low level of willingness to accept pre-pandemic influenza vaccination among hospital based healthcare workers, especially in those working in the allied health professions. This is particularly surprising in a city where the SARS outbreak had such a huge impact. The intention to accept vaccination against H1N1 influenza (swine flu) in the study was less than 50% even at WHO alert phase 5. The accompanying editorial says that evidence from decades of seasonal vaccination suggests likely benefits and low risk of adverse events, and vaccination may also help to keep the healthcare system operating at maximum capacity throughout the pandemic.
This report from Bloomberg News.
Health Workers Reluctant to Get Pandemic Vaccine, Survey Shows
By Andrea Gerlin
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Less than half of health-care workers in Hong Kong are willing to be vaccinated for swine flu, a survey published today in the British Medical Journal found.
The proportion of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who plan to be immunized against H1N1, the virus that causes swine flu, was 47.9 percent when they were polled in May, researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong wrote. The World Health Organization declared its second-highest pandemic alert level on April 29, signifying human-to-human transmission of H1N1 in at least two countries in one region.
“The prevailing sentiment is that people don’t want to get it,” Thomas Tsang, acting controller of Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection, said on Aug. 23 at a meeting on influenza organized by The Lancet medical journal, China’s health ministry and the WHO. “They are afraid of all sorts of side effects.”
Health-care workers will be among the first inoculated in most countries that have announced immunization programs when manufacturers begin delivering the vaccine in the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn. The WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization recommended last month that countries immunize medical personnel first to keep health-care systems operating and then decide which other groups should have priority.
