Healthcare Workers' Exposures for Mumps, Measles, Rubella and Varicella Zoster Virus Infections: A Multicenter Survey Study

ABSTRACT Objectives: In this research article, the authors carried out a multi-center study to evaluate the exposure and vaccination status of selected Turkish health-care workers for measles, rubella, mumps, and varicella zoster. Methods: The authors conducted a survey research by a questionnaire for health-care workers. The participants were questioned about vaccination and exposure of mumps, measles, rubella and varicella zoster virus. Results: A total of 5165 health-care workers; 1665 male (32.2%) and 3500 female (67.8%) participated in the study. The rates of measles, rubella, mumps and varicella history in the participants were found to be 39.2%, 21.8%, 50.8% and 56.9%, respectively. When health-care workers were asked about vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella; 2327 (47.4%) participants could not remember, 1423 (29%) participants stated that they had not been vaccinated and 763 (15.5%) had been vaccinated. Only 55 (1.1%) of the participants stated that they had measles vaccination. In total 2376 (49%) participants stated that they had not been vaccinated against varicella zoster and 451 (9.4%) people did not have vaccination since they already had developed disease and 1913 (39.8%) people did not remember their vaccination status for varicella zoster. Only 68 (1.4%) health-care workers stated that they had been vaccination against varicella zoster. Conclusions: The authors found that only a small group of health-care workers were vaccinated against these diseases and most of them could not remember whether they had been exposed to these viruses. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2019; 9(3):104-111.