Do HCWs adequately know about meningitis and 4CMenB vaccine and recommend its use to parents? A cross sectional analysis in Campania Region, Italy

Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a severe disease caused by various Neisseria meningitidis serogroups that represents a serious public health problem worldwide. In Italy, serogroups B and C are the major causes of IMD. On 14 January 2013, the European Medicines Agency authorized the use of the first vaccine available to protect against meningococcal serogroup B (4CMenB). The aim of this study was to assess the IMD epidemiology knowledge and 4CMenB vaccine attitudes of healthcare workers (HCWs) with regard to recommending this vaccine for use, vaccine practices and infectious disease control in the Campania region in Italy. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 293 HCWs (49.5% physicians and 46.4% nurses)interviewed using a self-administered questionnaire. The majority of the HCWs had sufficient knowledge about the disease incidence and lethality, but they were less informed about the higher risk age categories and the serogroups most frequently involved. Additionally, their knowledge about the vaccine was poor with regard to the targeted categories and side effects. Approximately30.0% of the HCWs reported incidences of fever and pain and swelling at the injection site. Moreover,32.8% of the HCWs knew that the risk of developing adverse reactions increases when the 4CMenB vaccine is co-administered with other vaccines. Overall, all of the HCWs were convinced that vaccinations are an important instrument for preventing infectious diseases, and they were aware of their central role in promoting the 4CmenB vaccination and their need to be better informed.