Flu vaccine among health workers in Qatar

To assessed the coverage rate of influenza vaccination among Health Care Workers at Hamad Medical Corporation in 2006 vaccination campaign and also assessed the reasons for non-vaccination in among physicians and nurses.

This is an observational study conducted in Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar between April 2007 and August 2007. The 2006 vaccination campaign records were analyzed to determine the influenza vaccination coverage rate among all staff in 6 independent facilities. We used a self-administrative questionnaire to assess the reasons for not getting the influenza vaccine among a random sample of non-vaccinated physicians and nurses.

Approximately 19.4% of all staff were vaccinated and there were statistically significant differences between the type of health care facilities among physicians and nurses group. Approximately 58% of the random sample of 1261 physicians and nurses returned the questionnaire. The most frequently cited reasons for non-vaccination were lack of time to get immunized (16.5%) and concerns on vaccine side effects (13.6%).

Influenza vaccination coverage of health care workers is low and variable depending on type of health care setting, therefore, it is essential to identify the reasons for low vaccination rate in different health care facility in which assists the guidance to improve the coverage rates for the following years.