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Abstract
The Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP) recommends that health care providers
who contact high-risk patients receive influenza immunization annually. There are
few available data on hospital employees' acceptance of these recommendations or their
attitudes about influenza immunization. In a hospital where no formal influenza immunization
program was in place, a survey of 193 nursing personnel and physicians showed that
only 2.1% received the 1986–1987 trivalent influenza vaccine and 3.2% the monovalent
A/Taiwan/1/86 vaccine before the 1986–1987 influenza season. An influenza-like illness
developed in a total of 35.3% of hospital employees during the influenza season, and
76.6% of them cared for patients while ill. Fear of adverse reactions, avoidance of
medications, and the inconvenience of vaccine administration were frequently cited
reasons for declining immunization. Hospital employees would be more inclined to receive
future influenza immunization if vaccine administration were more accessible and if
they were informed that immunization were a national health care policy. During the
influenza season, nurses and physicians should be considered a uniformly susceptible
reservoir of infection capable of transmitting influenza to patients. Moreover, ACIP
guidelines alone probably will not lead to acceptable immunization rates among health
care providers; organized institutional efforts to promote immunization of health
care providers may be required.
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© 1989 Published by Elsevier Inc.
