1553 Influenza infection and immunisation coverage among healthcare professionals in national guard hospital, western saudi arabia

Abstract

Introduction Burden of influenza infection among healthcare professionals (HCPs) is high including transmission to high risk and severely-ill patients. This chart review aims is to record laboratory confirmed influenza cases and influenza immunisation coverage among HCPs in Ministry of National Guard hospital, a 500-bed tertiary care hospital, in western Saudi Arabia. Methods Laboratory confirmed influenza cases among healthcare professionals from June 2014 – June 2017 were reviewed. Influenza immunisation and reasons of declining to receive the vaccine were recorded. Results During the study period, 78 HCPs had laboratory confirmed influenza (9.1% of all confirmed cases). There were 18 HCPs with H1N1 (8.1%), 43 with influenza A (11.1%) and 17 with influenza B (6.8%). In the meantime, influenza immunisation coverage ranged from 33%–64% among physicians, 80%–93% among nurses and 32%–41% among paramedicals (i.e., medical technicians, pharmacists and administrators). Reasons of declining influenza vaccination included doubt of the need for the vaccine (27.8%), concern of vaccine safety (21.0%), bad experience following vaccination in the previous year (41.5%), insufficient time to attend immunisation clinic (9.6%) and fear of the needle (6.6%). Conclusion Number of confirmed influenza cases is mostly under-reported. HCPs are at increased risk for influenza infection and efforts should focus on Infection prevention strategies and increasing immunisation coverage among HCPs and patients.