What is it about?
A recently published article on healthcare professionals’ current influenza vaccine uptake rate, reasons for not getting vaccinated as well as their awareness, knowledge of, and attitude towards influenza vaccination in Freetown Sierra Leone.
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Why is it important?
To our knowledge, this is the first ever type of study in Sierra Leone and perhaps in Africa that looks at influenza vaccination status among healthcare workers as well as their knowledge and perception regarding influenza disease and vaccination. As influenza is recognised as a public health challenge, health care providers are considered as vulnerable groups and vectors of transmission. Influenza immunization in the healthcare setting has been shown to be beneficial in reducing patient and health provider morbidity and mortality and as well as productivity
Perspectives
In Sierra Leone, acute respiratory infections are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. The paucity of epidemiological data, especially on influenza has been a huge challenge to fully understand its public health impact.Currently, influenza vaccination is not part of the national routine immunization program, and hitherto, there is no guideline on influenza vaccination for HCPs in Sierra Leone. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess HCPs’ current influenza vaccine uptake rate, reasons for not getting vaccinated as well as their awareness, knowledge of, and attitude about influenza vaccination in Freetown Sierra Leone.
Dr Peter B James
Southern Cross University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: An assessment of healthcare professionals’ knowledge about and attitude towards influenza vaccination in Freetown Sierra Leone: a cross-sectional study, BMC Public Health, September 2017, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-017-4700-2.
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