Health Care Workers Fear Swine Flu Vaccine Side Effects

A recently published Bloomberg article reports that in Hong Kong a majority of health care workers are reluctant to be vaccinated against the H1N1 Swine Flu virus, because of the feared side effects of the vaccine and the uncertain nature of its efficacy.

31 hospital departments of internal medicine, paediatrics, and emergency medicine under the Hong Kong Hospital Authority were surveyed and 2255 health care workers completed the questionnaires in the two studies. They were doctors, nurses, or allied health professionals working in the public hospital system.

The overall willingness to accept pre pandemic H5N1 vaccine was only 28.4% in the first survey, and then when the WHO alert level was at phase 5, 47.9% of those surveyed indicated their willingness to be vaccinated.

The major barriers identified were fear of side effects and doubts about efficacy. More than half of the respondents thought nurses should be the first priority group to receive the vaccines. The strongest positive associating factors were history of seasonal influenza vaccination and perceived risk of contracting the infection, according to the BMJ medical journal report.

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