Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination

Role of immunization in prevention of nosocomial infections

6^th Euro Global Summit and Expo on Vaccines & Vaccination

August 17-19, 2015 Birmingham, UK

Zarema Obradovic

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Vaccines Vaccin

Abstract:

Background: According to the Law on Protection of people from infectious diseases (Official gazette of the Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, number 29/05), article 2, pragraph 8: “Nosocomial infection is an infection that occurs during the
providing of health services in a health care institution or at the provider in a private practice”. Affected are patients, people
employed in health care institutions (health care and non health care workers) and visitors. There are different prevention
measures that are used in practice and their implementation depends on behavioral changes of each individual related to this
problem. Immunization is in the group of measures that are partially legally required for health care workers and partially are
recommended. Hepatitis B vaccination is legally required for all health care workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Other vaccines
among which there are the vaccine against influenza, varicellae, morbilli, rubella and parotitis (MRP), are recommended
because of the specificity of work in some high riks departments (hematology, oncology, and neonatology).
Objective: The aim of this study is to present the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina according to the immunization of health
care workers against hepatitis B, influenza and other vaccines as preventive measures in prevention of nosocomial infections.
Material & Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out involving health care workers in different clinics in Clinical
Centre University of Sarajevo. We used the questionnaire created for this purpose.
Results: Because of insufficient control of the vaccinal status and sometimes inadequate awareness of the health care worker,
the percentage of non vaccinated health care workers is quite high and is about 20-40%. The vaccination coverage for other
vaccines is worse and for influenza is between 5-10%. There are significant differences between departments and between
different groups of health care workers.
Conclusion: Immunization as a preventive measure for prevention of nosocomial infections in not enough respected among
health care workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and needs to be improved in the future.

Biography :

Zarema Obradovi�? is an Epidemiologist, currently working at the Epidemiology Department of Institute of Public Health Canton Sarajevo and as a Professor of
Epidemiology at the Faculty for Health Studies, University of Sarajevo. After completing her studies at the Medical Faculty, University of Sarajevo, she completed
the specialization in epidemiology in 1990. She completed the degree Master of Medical Sciences in 1997, and the degree Doctor of Medical Sciences in 2001.
She is very active in several fields: Public health, epidemiology, travel medicine and occupational health. She has published over 170 papers on different topics
and attended many international congresses and conferences all over the world (Bern, London, Paris, Athens, Rome, Ankara, Boston, Johannesburg, Singapore,
Nairobi etc.). She is a member of the commission for International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the coordinator for noncommunicable
diseases (WHO) on national level.