Seroprevalence of measles, rubella, mumps and varicella in health care workers [Sağlık personelinde kızamık, kızamıkçık, kabakulak ve suçiçeği seroprevalansının değerlendirilmesi]

Objective: Health care workers are exposed to many infectious agents when compared with general population. Immunization to vaccine-preventable diseases is an important part of infection control among health care workers, both for their own health and against the spread of infections. The aim of this study is to detect the immune status of health care workers of our hospital to measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) and varicella and to define an appropriate vaccination program and also to analyze the cost efficiency of pre-vaccination screening. Methods: This study was conducted at Bülent Ecevit University Hospital between March 2014 and January 2015. The following data were recorded for each participant: age, gender, profession, department, duration of employment, childhood residence location, history of MMR and varicella, and status of vaccinations. The specific IgG antibodies were screened by im-munosorbent enzyme-linked assay. Results: 184 health care workers participated in the study. 61.2% were female, and 38.8% were male. The mean age was 32.43±6.4. The serologic test results revealed that 92.2% of the health care workers were immune to measles, 98.2% were immune to rubella, 94% were immune to mumps and 94.3% were immune to varicella. The validity of the medical history of participants were high for mumps and measles (81.6% and 80.5%, respectively) and low for rubella (43.4%). The positive predictive values for the history of rubella, mumps, varicella and measles were 98.9%, 97.5% and 96.9%, 95.6%, respectively. Cost efficiency analysis showed that the cost of vaccination without screening was more expensive for varicella and MMR (cost difference 18 253 Turkish Lira and 1432 Turkish Lira, respectively) Our findings support that a negative medi-cal history or serological screening before vaccination is cost effective especially for varicella. Conclusions: In conclusion, immune status of health care workers who worked in high-risk departments should be determined by serologic tests and susceptible health care workers must be vaccinated. © 2019, AVES İbrahim KARA. All rights reserved