Increased Susceptibility to Varicella‐Zoster Virus among Israeli Physicians and Nurses Born in the Middle‐East Region

Abstract

Increased Susceptibility to VaricellaZoster Virus among Israeli Physicians and NursesBorn in the Middle-East Region: Gabriel CHODICK, et al. Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel-Nosocomial transmission of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is recognized as a significant cause of morbidity in health care workers as well as in high-risk patients. The current study aimed to investigate the presence of VZV antibodies among physicians and nurses, to assess the variables affecting it, and to compare it with previous international studies. Data were obtained by a questionnaire regarding sociodemographic and occupational characteristics and by determination of serum antibodies to varicella-zoster. The seroprevalence of varicella-zoster among the 335 study participants was 94.8% (95%CI: 91.9%-96.9%), with no significant difference between nurses (94%) and physicians (97%). Decreased risk for the virus was observed in workers who immigrated to Israel from the Asia or Africa (OR=0.15; 95% CI: 0.04-0.51). Reduced immunity among these workers remained significant in a multivariate model, which also included age, gender, years of education, number of siblings, and crowding at childhood. Our data suggest that in spite of the high immunity among Israeli physicians and nurses in general, the implementation of small-scale vaccination programs aimed at workers from warmer and tropical areas, should be seriously considered. (J Occup Health 2006; 48: 246-252)

Varicella Zoster antibodies among health care workers in a university hospital, Teheran, Iran

“…The immunity rates for varicella among medical students in Germany and Switzerland were 96.9% and 97%, respectively, [17,18], while in our study, only 71% of medical students were immune. In Israel, the seroprevalence of VZ among the HCWs in three studies was 94.8%, 94.4% and 98.5% [19][20][21]. In Japan and Brazil, the seropositivity for VZ among HCWs ranged from 97.2% to 99.1% [13,22,23].…”

Immunity to Varicella Zoster Virus Among Young Adults: A Decline Prior to Widespread Uptake of Varicella Vaccines

“…In recent studies performed in Israel, the overall age-weighted VZV seroprevalence was estimated to be 90.2% with a 96.6% seropositivity at age 12 [10], and the seroprevalence of VZV among 335 physicians and nurses was found to be 94.8% [11]. A seroprevalence study carried out among adolescents 15-18 years of age attending schools in Lebanon showed 96.6% immunity to varicella [12].…”

“…This is the first population-based study of varicella seroprevalence in Israel since 1992, and the only one conducted subsequent to the introduction of the VZV vaccine in 2000. One of the recently published Israeli studies was based on residual sera [10], while the other studied a highly selected population of physicians and [11]. Since military service is compulsory in Israel for all 18-year-old Jewish citizens, our sample is representative of this population.…”

Susceptibilidad a la varicela en personal sanitario. Aceptación y respuesta a la vacunación

“…Este valor es similar al observado en varios estudios publicados en los ú ltimos añ os [25][26][27][28] , si bien en un estudio reciente de Chazan et al 18 y en otro de Vandersmissen et al 22 se hallaron prevalencias incluso má s bajas, de alrededor de un 1,5% en muestras de 200 y 4.223 trabajadores, respectivamente. La baja proporció n de susceptibles en el estudio de Vandersmissen et al se debe al peso relativo del personal de enfermería analizado (60,8%), que mostró una prevalencia de susceptibles menor que el total (1,1%), si bien la categoría laboral no suele mostrar diferencias en la mayoría de estudios analizados.…”

“…La baja proporció n de susceptibles en el estudio de Vandersmissen et al se debe al peso relativo del personal de enfermería analizado (60,8%), que mostró una prevalencia de susceptibles menor que el total (1,1%), si bien la categoría laboral no suele mostrar diferencias en la mayoría de estudios analizados. Los resultados del presente trabajo son consistentes con los de otros autores que tampoco han hallado diferencias significativas en la susceptibilidad a VVZ asociadas a la categoría laboral 20,25,29 .…”