Posted on 08/27/2009 1:21:10 PM PDT by delacoert
Aug. 25, 2009 -- Less than half of health care workers surveyed in Hong Kong intend to get vaccinated against swine flu, citing uncertainty about its effectiveness and possible side effects, a new study indicates.
And another new study shows that health care workers and some people in the general public may refuse to get immunized or vaccinate their kids, fearing that risks of a novel vaccine could outweigh benefits.
The Hong Kong study is published by BMJ. The other study, based on analysis of 85 participants of focus group discussions in Canada, is published in Emerging Health Threats Journal.
Authors of the Hong Kong study describe their findings as surprising, given the fact that SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) had such a huge impact in Hong Kong, and note their information was gathered at the same time as the World Health Organization escalated its alert for swine flu to phase 5.
The SARS virus outbreak of 2003 infected more than 8,000 people worldwide and caused nearly 800 deaths.
Josette Chor, BSc, PhD of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and colleagues of the BMJ study say that campaigns are needed to encourage vaccination of health professionals. The researchers gathered survey data from 2,255 health care workers at 31 hospitals. They were first surveyed about willingness to get a pre-pandemic vaccine against avian flu (H5N1) when the WHO influenza pandemic alert level was at phase 3 in early 2009. In May when the level had been raised to 5, they were asked about willingness to get a vaccine against the new H1N1 swine flu.
In the first survey, 28% of respondents said they’d be willing to get vaccinated for pandemic flu. The authors say “no significant changes in the level of intention to accept pre-pandemic H5N1 vaccine were observed,” despite the escalation to phase 5 of the swine flu pandemic.
About 48% of respondents said they’d take the shots against swine flu at phase 5, but many still said they worried about side effects of vaccines and efficacy.
“To our knowledge, this is the largest study conducted to assess the willingness of healthcare workers to accept pre-pandemic influenza vaccination, and it provides important information on barriers to vaccination,” the authors write.
For the Canadian study, Natalie Henrich, PhD, MPH, of the University of British Columbia and doctoral student Bev Holmes at Simon Fraser University studied 85 people in 11 focus groups in Vancouver in 2006-2007. Participants in the Vancouver focus groups included university students, adult Canadians, parents, and health care workers.
They found that participants seemed reluctant to get a new vaccine during a pandemic "because of low perception of risk of infection early in a pandemic coupled with the many uncertainties that surround new vaccines and the emerging infectious disease." They note that "very few" said that they "would definitely get vaccinated."
Also, “participants were very concerned that in a pandemic, a vaccine would be brought to market without sufficient testing for safety,” the researchers write. Many felt that hand-washing and social distancing could help prevent disease.
But Henrich and Holmes say such steps, though worthwhile, aren’t enough, and that the message that vaccination is important needs to be broadly stressed.
In an accompanying BMJ editorial to the Chor study, Rachel Jordan, PhD, MPH, from the University of Birmingham, and Andrew Hayward, PhD, of the UCL Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, say the first batch of H1N1 vaccine should be ready by October. They say it’s important for health workers to get the vaccine for personal and patient protection and also to reduce absenteeism.
The Hong Kong researchers say more study is needed to determine the root cause of the low intention to get vaccinated.
Well, our military will get it. That’s for sure. I will, too.
swineflu Ping
I don’t blame them. I will not be getting an H1N1 shot.
H1N1 is already becoming resistant to Tamiflu. The last I saw about 20% of the infections were resistant. This will go up significantly as more people are treated this fall.
And yes, the flu is only causing about 3x the death rate as the anual flu but it has been identified in swans in South America which greatly increases the risk that it will pick up more virulent genes from the avian flu.
Unless I get it naturally over the next few months, which is fairly likely, I will get the vaccination when it is available.
I wonder if you can trust the trial shots. It's not past this corrupt country to give these dupes something less virulent than what would be given later. BTW, I will not take it.
"My body,my choice",where have we heard that before?Let the bureaucrats AND their families take the same shots drawn at random from the same pool of vaccine as we would.
We have always offered free flu shots to our employees, and to our ptients, at cost. This year we are not going to give an untested vaccine to either group.
Click on the Full Text link near the top of the left sidebar for the whole article.
Thanks for that link. Please put me on your ping list.
Swine Flu Vaccine Program in Jeopardy in Australia !
Excerpt:
THE Federal Government's plan to immunise the population against swine flu is in chaos because doctors' insurers may not cover them to administer the jab, saying inadequate testing and the possibility of spreading other infections mean there is too high a risk that patients will sue them later.Despite weeks of crisis talks, the Government has refused to underwrite doctors' liability for the vaccinations, and medical groups say the program - due to start as early as mid-September - cannot proceed unless doctors are insured.
Andrew Pesce, president of the Australian Medical Association, said ''the indemnity issue needs to be sorted out or else the vaccination program won't go ahead''. * * *
Lawyers and insurers stopped mass inoculations in Australia. They need to stop them here in America . . .
“Acute Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneurapathy, an autoimmune disorder with crippling or even fatal consequences.”
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Attempting to say that might be fatal, you could get your tongue lodged in your windpipe and suffocate.
I will be offered the vaccine before it is available to the general public. And, like I said, if I don’t contract it naturally by that time, I will take it and help provide safety data.
BTW, you will never get definative proof of safety in any aspect of your life. Life is about ballancing risk, not trying to avoid all risk. I’m more likely to get killed, maimed or paralyzed by my morning commute than I am taking a vaccination.
Guess we are no longer in the era of when, for instance, a doctor did the first heart cath on himself.
My wife is a pharmacist and works the night shift at a hospital. About three days ago, she told me that she had to deliver tamiflu to a patient that was confirmed to have H1N1. I asked her if she had a mask on. She said she didn’t but that the patient did. She said that the patient looked fine. I asked her if she was going to take the vaccine when it becomes available and she said no way, that she didn’t trust it. She was a pharmacist in the military when we met and has been a pharmacist for 23 years.
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