ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR OF HEALTH-CARE PERSONNEL REGARDING INFLUENZA VACCINATION

This paper reports the results of a study conducted by the Italian Ass ociation for Immune-prophylaxis promotion (AIPI) with the aim of surve ying the attitudes and perceptions of Italian health care workers rega rding the use and efficacy of influenza vaccine. The results clearly s how that a high proportion of the questioned health care workers showe d a general lack of concern about the severity of the disease. Doubts about vaccine efficacy and fear of post-vaccination side effects were also observed to have an important influence on the vaccination accept ance rates. These data underline the need for a systematic education p rogram to provide influenza vaccination within the public and private health-care sectors in Italy.