TY - JOUR
T1 - Susceptibility to measles and varicella in healthcare workers in a tertiary hospital in Catalonia
AU - Fernández-Cano, María Isabel
AU - Armadans, Lluís
AU - Sulleiro, Elena
AU - Espuga, Meritxell
AU - Ferrer, Esther
AU - Martínez-Gómez, Xavi
AU - Vaqué, Josep
AU - Campins, Magda
PY - 2012/4/1
Y1 - 2012/4/1
N2 - Introduction: To estimate the susceptibility to measles and varicella (chickenpox) in healthcare workers in a public tertiary level teaching hospital, in Catalonia. Methods: A prevalence study was conducted from January 2006 to December 2008 on 2,752 workers who had serology performed for the determination of measles or varicella by ELISA test during a health examination. Data were analysed by, sex, age, professional category and work unit. Results: A total of 153 healthcare workers were susceptible to measles and 187 to varicella. The susceptibility of healthcare workers to measles was 6.04% (95% CI: 5.78 to 6.30), and to varicella it was 7.45% (95% CI: 7.14 to 7.75). The highest susceptibility to measles was in resident physicians with 14% (95% CI: 10.8 to 18.5). In high-risk services, where highly immunocompromised patients are attended, the susceptibility of workers was slightly higher than the rest to measles (6.32% vs 5.93%) and varicella (8.34% vs 7.09%). Healthcare workers born after 1980 were 20 times (95% CI: 11.0 to 37.2) more likely to be susceptible to measles, and 2 times (95% CI: 1.2 to 3.2) more likely to be susceptible to varicella than those those born before 1965. Conclusions: The susceptibility to measles in healthcare workers in our centre is higher in younger cohorts, with values higher than expected in a community with high vaccination coverage against measles, mumps, rubella vaccine (MMR) in the paediatric population for many years.
AB - Introduction: To estimate the susceptibility to measles and varicella (chickenpox) in healthcare workers in a public tertiary level teaching hospital, in Catalonia. Methods: A prevalence study was conducted from January 2006 to December 2008 on 2,752 workers who had serology performed for the determination of measles or varicella by ELISA test during a health examination. Data were analysed by, sex, age, professional category and work unit. Results: A total of 153 healthcare workers were susceptible to measles and 187 to varicella. The susceptibility of healthcare workers to measles was 6.04% (95% CI: 5.78 to 6.30), and to varicella it was 7.45% (95% CI: 7.14 to 7.75). The highest susceptibility to measles was in resident physicians with 14% (95% CI: 10.8 to 18.5). In high-risk services, where highly immunocompromised patients are attended, the susceptibility of workers was slightly higher than the rest to measles (6.32% vs 5.93%) and varicella (8.34% vs 7.09%). Healthcare workers born after 1980 were 20 times (95% CI: 11.0 to 37.2) more likely to be susceptible to measles, and 2 times (95% CI: 1.2 to 3.2) more likely to be susceptible to varicella than those those born before 1965. Conclusions: The susceptibility to measles in healthcare workers in our centre is higher in younger cohorts, with values higher than expected in a community with high vaccination coverage against measles, mumps, rubella vaccine (MMR) in the paediatric population for many years.
KW - Chickenpox
KW - Health Personnel
KW - Immunity
KW - Measles
KW - Seroprevalence
KW - Varicella
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eimc.2011.10.002
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eimc.2011.10.002
M3 - Article
SN - 0213-005X
VL - 30
SP - 184
EP - 188
JO - Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiologia Clinica
JF - Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiologia Clinica
ER -
