Protect Yourself and Protect Your Patients from Vaccine-Preventable Diseases

Andrea Becker, BSN, RN-Immunization Nurse Educator-MDHHS Division of Immunization

 

Healthcare personnel (HCP) face a wide range of potential hazards on the job, including the risk of being exposed to serious and sometimes deadly vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccination programs are an essential part of infection prevention and control for HCP.

Unfortunately, despite the risk of disease, and the overwhelming safety profile of vaccines, vaccine hesitancy has become a growing concern amongst many people, including HCP. Due to the success of vaccines, vaccine-preventable diseases have become less visible today and many HCP have not seen these diseases firsthand. Therefore, there is less focus on disease itself and more focus on the usefulness and safety of the vaccine.

To illustrate, some HCP are reluctant to receive the flu vaccine despite strong recommendations to do so. Among unvaccinated HCP surveyed early in the 2017-18 flu season, the most common reason reported for not getting vaccinated was fear of experiencing side effects or getting sick from the vaccine (22.1%).¹ This is concerning for many reasons, especially since influenza causes more deaths per year than any other vaccine-preventable disease. In addition, if healthcare workers are not confident about the safety, effectiveness, and importance of vaccination, they are unlikely to address the fears of their vaccine hesitant patients.

In the face of vaccine hesitancy, employers and HCP have a shared responsibility to prevent occupationally acquired infections and avoid causing harm to patients by taking reasonable precautions to prevent transmission of vaccine-preventable disease. HCP are at substantial risk for acquiring or transmitting hepatitis B, influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, and varicella. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), have outlined specific recommendations² for the Immunization of Healthcare Personnel. These recommendations include input from the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) and can assist hospital administrators, infection control practitioners, employee health clinicians, and HCP in optimizing infection prevention and control programs. Those who work directly with patients or who handle material that could spread infection, should get appropriate vaccines to reduce the chance that they will get or spread the vaccine-preventable disease(s).

Vaccine hesitancy is a threat to the progress that has been made in working to eliminate vaccine-preventable diseases. In order to eradicate vaccine-preventable diseases, we must establish herd immunity. Once a certain threshold has been reached, herd immunity gradually eliminates a disease from a population. Vaccine hesitancy has posed a challenge to herd immunity. This challenge has allowed vaccine-preventable diseases to persist in or return to communities that have inadequate vaccination rates. This is why it’s especially important for HCP to take an active role in protecting themselves, their patients, and their family members by making sure they are up-to-date with all recommended vaccines and by making strong vaccine recommendations to their patients. 

 

References:

¹Health Care Personnel and Flu Vaccination, Internet Panel Survey, United States, November 2017: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/fluvaxview/hcp-ips-nov2017.htm

²Immunization of Health-Care Personnel; Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP): https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/rr/rr6007.pdf

Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) Healthcare Personnel Vaccination Recommendations: https://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p2017.pdf