More than half of health workers surveyed in Hong Kong do not want to be vaccinated against the A(H1N1) virus because of fears of side effects and doubts about its effectiveness.
The study results, published in the British Medical Journal yesterday, echo the findings from a survey of 1,500 nurses in Britain where 30 percent said they would refuse new vaccines against the A(H1N1) swine flu for safety reasons.
“With the reported low level of willingness to accept pre-pandemic vaccination in this study, future work on intervention to increase vaccination uptake is warranted,” wrote the researchers, led by Paul Chan (陳基湘), a microbiology professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“A campaign to encourage vaccination among healthcare workers should be introduced,” they said.
The South China Morning Post, citing the local health department, reported on Aug. 17 that the number of swine flu cases had risen to 7,071.
The study consisted of two surveys involving 2,255 doctors, nurses and other health workers in public hospitals in Hong Kong.
The first, conducted between January and March when the WHO’s flu pandemic alert was at phase 3, showed just more than 28 percent of respondents said they would be willing to be vaccinated against the H5N1 bird flu virus.
The second, undertaken in May when the WHO raised its alert level to 5 because of swine flu, found only 47.9 percent of those surveyed would be vaccinated against A(H1N1).
“The most common reason for refusal was ‘worry about side effects’ and other reasons included ‘query on the efficacy of the vaccine,’ ‘not yet the right time to be vaccinated’ and ‘simply did not want the vaccine,’” the researchers wrote.
Those who said they would opt for swine flu vaccination tended to be young, had had the seasonal flu vaccine in 2008-2009 and feared they were vulnerable to A(H1N1).
Malik Peiris, a microbiology professor at the University of Hong Kong, who is not connected with the study, said the surveys gave an insight into public perception, but he warned such views could alter rapidly.
“In Hong Kong, if you have one death in a healthcare worker, you will have a change in perception,” he said.
“Protection of oneself is important and particularly when it comes to healthcare workers who are more [at risk] than the general public because they come into contact with sick people,” he said.
Robert Dingwall, director of the Institute for Science and Society at University of Nottingham, cautioned against taking the findings too seriously. He was not linked to the study.
“Real decisions will be made in a future context where health professionals have better information about the safety of the vaccine and opportunities to reflect on their responsibilities towards their patients and the functioning of major social institutions,” he said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home