What Is the Willingness to Receive Vaccination Against COVID-19 Among the Elderly in Italy? Data From the PASSI d'Argento Surveillance System.

Introduction: Italy was one of the earliest countries to experience a severe COVID-19 epidemic and vaccinating the elderly, who constitute 23% of the population and have experienced the highest mortality rates, is a top priority. Estimating prevalences and understanding risk factors for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy or refusal are important for development of targeted interventions. Methods: We used data from a specially developed COVID-19 module of PASSI D'Argento, an ongoing surveillance system of residents 65+ years of age to measure the prevalence and identify risk factors for hesitancy and refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. We calculated multinomial regression relative risk ratios to examine the association between demographic characteristics, health status, COVID-19 attitudes and experiences and likely vaccine hesitancy and refusal. Results: Of the 1876 respondents, 55% reported they would accept vaccination and 16% would likely refuse; the remaining 29% were categorized as hesitant. Compared with the acceptance group, we identified several risk factors in common between the hesitancy group and the refusal group, including not having received vaccination against influenza during the previous flu season (hesitancy: RRR = 2.0; 95% CI 1.4-2.9; refusal: RRR = 12.1; 95%CI 7.6-19.4) and lower risk of having had a death from COVID-19 among family or friends (hesitancy: RRR = 4.8; 95%CI 2.0-11.4; refusal: RRR = 15.4; 95%CI 3.7-64.5). The hesitancy group was significantly more likely being worried and they did not know if consequences of the disease would be serious for them. Conclusion: Our findings show the importance of establishing and maintaining active contact between the preventive services, primary care providers and the population because trust is difficult to establish during an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic. Italian public health is based on a capillary network of general practitioners and having them reach out to their patients who have not previously received influenza vaccine may be a useful strategy for targeting efforts to further encourage uptake of COVID-19 vaccination.

Integrated management of childhood illness: what have we learned and how can it be improved?

Integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) was developed by the WHO and UNICEF in the mid-1990s as a strategy to reduce under-five mortality. Aimed at countries with mortalities >40/1000 live births, it has been adopted by more than 100 countries. Repeated evaluations have demonstrated that IMCI can improve the quality of clinical care for sick children, but coverage has rarely reached high enough levels to achieve the expected reductions in mortality. In this paper, we discuss the reasons why IMCI has fallen short of its full potential, what has already been done to address some of these issues, and how it could be repositioned to achieve its original goals.

Tuberculosis screening among foreign-born persons applying for permanent US residence.

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to determine adherence of physicians to tuberculosis (TB) screening guidelines among foreign-born persons living in the United States who were applying for permanent residency. METHODS: Medical forms of applicants from 5 geographic areas were reviewed, along with information from a national physician database on attending physicians. Applicant and corresponding physician characteristics were compared among those who were and were not correctly screened. RESULTS: Of 5739 applicants eligible for screening via tuberculin skin test, 75% were appropriately screened. Except in San Diego, where 11% of the applicants received no screening, most of the inappropriate screening resulted from the use of chest x-rays as the initial screening tool. CONCLUSIONS: Focused physician education and periodic monitoring of adherence to screening guidelines are warranted.

HIV risk factors among patients with tuberculosis--Botswana 1999.

To identify factors associated with HIV in Botswana, a standardized questionnaire was administered to 135 tuberculosis patients with known HIV status. HIV-positive patients were more likely than HIV-negative patients to: be female (45% vs 26% (adjusted prevalence odds ratio (aPOR)=3.8, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.1-12.7)); be 26-35 years old (50% vs 19% (aPOR=2.7, CI=0.7-10.7)); be unmarried (91% vs 71% (aPOR=13.3, CI=2.5-72.7)); have higher income (24% vs 10% (aPOR=8.2, CI=1.6-42.9)); report separation from spouse/partner for work (63% vs 52% (aPOR=1.8, CI=0.5-6.2)); have 2 sex partners other than their regular partner (82% vs 67% (aPOR=1.8, CI=0.5-7.5)); and state that they or their partner drank alcohol before sex (77% vs 55% (aPOR=6.8, CI=1.9-24.1)). Only 22% of respondents used condoms during all of their past 10 sexual encounters. These data provide information for HIV prevention strategies.