Only 6% of domestic medical staff received the vaccines

The KOSHIC, national Survey of 200 Hospitals

Most have received the influenza vaccine, Only 6% have received TDAP

A large number of university hospital staff in Korea are treating patients without even receiving a preventive vaccine recommended for medical workers.

 

Even 93.5% of administrators for Hospital Infection did not have all the recommended vaccines.

 

As most of the reasons for the difficulty in vaccinating are the cost burden, the government needs financial support.

 

#The Korean Society Healthcare-associated Infection Control & Prevention (KOSHIC) conducted a large-scale national investigation of vaccinations among infection managers and healthcare personnel at member hospitals and published the results in the Journal of korean medical science on the 24th (doi.org/10.3346).

 

/jkms.2020.35.e76).

 

Since May 2018, researchers have surveyed vaccination status in a self-administered questionnaire in 652 member hospitals, of which 200 responded to specific surveys.

 

The questionnaire includes the designation of an administrators for Hospital Infection, a hospital-level immunization policy, and the recommended immunization.

 

The recommended vaccinations included influenza, MMR (measles, mumps, and rubela), TDAP (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis mixed vaccines), and hepatitis vaccines, jointly recommended by the KCDC and the KSID.

 

As a result, 172 hospitals (86%) have a vaccination policy, and there is an infection control room and medical staff to plan this.

 

Of the 200 hospitals, 151 (75.5%) said they had a screening program for at least one antibody before recruitment.

 

The most common screening program was hepatitis B, which was conducted at 74 % of hospitals before recruitment, with rubella (19%), measles (18%) and mumps (17%).

 

However, less than 6% of the hepatitis A infections were tested beforehand.

 

#196 (98%) hospitals were given vaccination against at least one vaccine related to the recommended vaccination.

 

The most common is influenza vaccine, with 97.5% being inoculated, followed by hepatitis B vaccine with 69%.

 

However, only 24.5% of MMR vaccines were vaccinated, 18.5% had chickenpox, and 11% had TDAP.

 

Only 6.5% of hospitals included all five vaccines recommended by the KCDC and the KSID.

 

93.5% of hospitals have only one or two vaccines.

 

As a result, as of 2017, 43 cases of medical staff were exposed to infectious diseases.

 

Chicken pox was the most common (15 cases) and hepatitis B (11 cases).

 

As such, each hospital was passive in vaccination because of the cost.

 

When asked what was the biggest obstacle to implementing the recommended vaccination policy, 77% said it was due to financial burden.

 

In addition, 21% of the respondents said that the awareness of vaccination was less than expected, and 21% of hospitals said they were due to the absence of vaccination campaigns.

 

#In fact, the influenza vaccine, for example, the more the number of beds tended to increase the inoculation rate.

 

As for the percentage of free vaccination projects, more than 700 beds recorded 100%, but 500 ~ 699 beds were 81.3%, 200 ~ 499 beds were 77%, and less than 200 beds were 72.1%.

 

Sung-ran Kim, a professor of infectious medicine at Kyunghee University Hospital, who conducted the study, said, “The exposure to infectious diseases in hospitals is a serious problem that can lead to paralysis of hospital function.

 

It is a big threat to the situation".

 

Professor Kim said, “The biggest obstacle to the recommended immunization policy was the hospital's financial burden,and this means there is a limit to lowering these barriers without financial support from the government".