These findings challenge the belief that unidirectional systems always provide acceptable airborne bacterial counts.

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The study highlighted the increased risk of HAI, at least partially explained by the greater severity and number of hospitalized patients requiring ICU admission. Furthermore, the management of intubation procedures and of ventilated patients was identified as a potential target for infection control interventions to decrease the growing risk of HAI in ICUs.

This paper reports the results of a study conducted by the Italian Association for Immune-Prophylaxis Promotion (AIP.I) with the aim of surveying the attitudes and perceptions of Italian health care workers regarding the use and efficacy of influenza vaccine. The results clearly show that a high proportion of the questioned health care workers showed a general lack of concern about the severity of the disease. Doubts about vaccine efficacy and fear of post-vaccination side effects were also observed to have an important influence on the vaccination acceptance rates. These data underline the need for a systematic education program to provide influenza vaccination within the public and private health-care sectors in Italy.