TY  - CONF
A1  - Wicker, Sabine
A1  - Rabenau, Holger
T1  - A patient safety issue: mandatory influenza vaccination for health care workers
T2  - Procedia in Vaccinology
N2  - With respect to nosocomial influenza infections, the welfare of patients is best served by high rates of staff immunity against influenza. However, data from the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) in the USA and the Robert Koch-Institute (RKI) in Germany indicate that most of health care workers (HCWs) choose not to be vaccinated. Under voluntary influenza immunization standards, institutional influenza outbreaks occur every flu season. The question about the legality of implementation mandatory flu vaccination for HCWs is an ongoing debate, which covers several different positions.
To characterize the attitudes of German HCWs toward mandatory influenza immunization, an anonymous questionnaire was offered to HCWs of the University Hospital in Frankfurt/Main / Germany. Our study showed that almost 70% of the respondents would accept mandatory influenza vaccination.
In our opinion an annual influenza vaccination should be required for HCWs who care for immunocompromised patients and residents in long-term care if there will be a failure of voluntary vaccination programs. An informed declination should be obtained from employees who decline vaccination and these HCWs ought to work in uncritical areas of patient care.
KW  - Healthcare worker
KW  - Influenza
KW  - Mandatory Vaccinations
KW  - Vaccine uptake rate
Y1  - 2010
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/75963
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-759633
SN  - 1877-282X
VL  - 2
IS  - 1
SP  - 101
EP  - 105
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam [u.a.]
ER  -