[Knowledge and attitudes of healthcare workers towards a suspect case of Ebola virus disease]. / Conocimientos y aptitudes del personal sanitario frente a sospecha de caso de enfermedad por el virus del Ébola.

OBJECTIVE: The last outbreak of the Ebola virus disease, was a precedent to demonstrate the necessary training of healthcare personnel for possible eventualities of suspected cases of infectious diseases. It is required to study the level of qualification of healthcare workers in such situations. METHODS: Descriptive study using post-workshop survey of healthcare workers in a Valencian Community health department on acquired knowledge and skills after training. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare personnel received an overall passing score on the post-workshop survey, but with differences in occupational categories and different blocks of training. The ratings could be considered deficient in some cases. It should be reviewed periodically training health personnel and calibrate such training to the resources available for proper operation.

Missed opportunities in antipneumococcal vaccination. Can something more be done for prevention?

INTRODUCTION: Vaccination is the most effective measure in the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). High-risk patients immunized during medical visits would benefit from the vaccine. OBJECTIVES: To describe the IPD cases. To assess the most prevalent causative serotypes and to evaluate the missed opportunities for vaccination. METHODS: This is a descriptive retrospective study of the incidence of IPD cases in Elche during 5 years. It was reviewed the vaccination status and the visits to specialized care prior to disease. It was also calculated the vaccine effectiveness with the 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine in our population. RESULTS: Between 2007 and 2011 were notified 181 of IPD, the most frequent medical conditions were pneumonia and sepsis, with a mortality rate of 12%. 80% of the causative serotypes are included in the vaccine. More than the half of the cases had at least one of the risk factor for indicating the vaccination. This percentage decreases by 6.2% in cases below 65 years of age with any risk factor. CONCLUSIONS: After 10 years of introducing the vaccine into the adult immunization schedule the coverage it is still low among the patients with risk factors. In our study, 75% of the cases were not vaccinated. Taking in count the vaccine effectiveness for preventing IPD, among the patients attended at the hospital by the specialist prior their IPD, it could have been prevented in the best assumption (85% vaccine effectiveness) 60 IPD cases.