[Does patient safety justify mandatory vaccinations?]

Medical and dental students belong to a group of health care workers (HCWs) who are frequently exposed to patients with occupationally transmissible infectious diseases. Vaccinations are the most effective interventions to protect HCWs and patients from vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. Despite decades of effort to encourage HCWs to be immunized, vaccination levels (e. g. influenza) remain insufficient.

To assess the attitudes of German medical and dental students towards mandatory immunizations, an anonymous questionnaire was offered to medical and dental students of the University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Overall, 56.9 % (1823/3200) of all medical and dental students attended to the study.

This study - so far the largest study done on this issue - showed that almost 88.5 % of the responding medical and dental students would accept mandatory vaccinations for HCWs.

Contrary to the widespread concern that a vaccination requirement would cause resistance, our data support that mandatory vaccinations (at least for HCWs who care for immunocompromised patients) might be widely accepted.