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Observational Study
. 2023 Aug 1;19(2):2252681.
doi: 10.1080/21645515.2023.2252681.

Measles vaccine uptake among Italian medical students compared to the pre-COVID-19 era

Cristiana Ferrari  1 , Giuseppina Somma  1 , Ole Olesen  2 , Ersilia Buonomo  1 , Matteo Pasanisi Zingarello  1 , Andrea Mazza  1 , Stefano Rizza  3 , Luca Di Giampaolo  4 , Andrea Magrini  1 , Francesca Ponzani  5 , Luca Coppeta  1
Affiliations
Observational Study

Measles vaccine uptake among Italian medical students compared to the pre-COVID-19 era

Cristiana Ferrari et al. Hum Vaccin Immunother. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected health systems worldwide and raised the issue of vaccine hesitancy. In 2022, the World Health Organization reported an outbreak of measles infection among people over 20 years of age in the European Region. Previous studies found low rates of measles immunization among Italian healthcare workers (HCWs) and medical students. Vaccine hesitancy is a relevant cause of low immunization rate among HCWs and the general population. We aim to evaluate the measles vaccine uptake among medical students of a large teaching hospital, compared to the pre-pandemic period. This is a retrospective observational study, that evaluated the immune status and the vaccine acceptance rate for measles in medical students at the University of Tor Vergata, Rome, who underwent occupational health surveillance from 1 January to 1 December 2022. We also compared the data with the results of a pre-pandemic survey conducted in 2018. Vaccine uptake among unprotected medical students was 59.5%. The data showed no significant difference in vaccine uptake compared with the pre-COVID-19 period. Conversely, the rate of serologically immune subjects to measles increased from 89.66% in 2018 to 97.45% in 2022 as a result of the recent mandatory vaccination policy. Despite efforts to tackle vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic, measles vaccine uptake is still low among young adults starting their medical training, and their compliance with free workplace vaccination offers is suboptimal. Occupational health services should raise awareness among workers and work together to implement strategies to achieve comprehensive measles vaccination coverage among occupational health workers.

Keywords: COVID-19; Measles; SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; healthcare workers; measles vaccine; medical students; outbreak; vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow-chart showing number of subjects evaluated in 2022.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Flow-chart showing number of subjects evaluated in 2018.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Measles vaccine uptake and COVID-19.
    Daungsupawong H, Wiwanitkit V. Daungsupawong H, et al. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2023 Aug;19(2):2261195. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2023.2261195. Epub 2023 Sep 19. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2023. PMID: 37725096 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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