"STUDENTS IN THE HOSPITAL WARD": VACCINATION COVERAGE OF MEDICAL STUDENTS OF A UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IN SOUTHERN ITALY

Abstract

Students enrolled in Medical school courses must be immunized as recommended by Italian law. Despite

this, vaccination coverage (VC) remains low. The goal of our study was to analyse, using an online

questionnaire, the VC of medical students and their intention to get vaccinated, to promote and plan

immunization with digital devices and to evaluate the increase of VC following an educational

extracurricular intervention. Despite VC was poor against some vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs), the

intention of the subjects enrolled in the study to get vaccinated resulted higher, particularly 39% for

influenza vaccination, 71% and 73% for meningococcal ACWY and B vaccinations. After the survey, an

increase in vaccination uptake was rapidly observed. During the 30 days following the intervention all the

medical students enrolled were immunized, involving friends or colleagues by taking them to the

vaccination service, and an increase of influenza and other VPDs awareness was noticed.