H1N1 Influenza Pandemic in Italy Revisited: Has the Willingness to Get Vaccinated Suffered in the Long Run?

Ludolph, Ramona; Nobile, Marta; Hartung, Uwe; Castaldi, Silvana; Schulz, Peter J.

Original Article mortality were discussed, but were found to be wrong later on. 6 In Italy, the H1N1 pandemic was responsible for 260 reported deaths caused by complications stemming from pandemic influenza and 5.600.000 cases of influenza-like illness between week 31 of 2009 and week 17 of 2010. 7 Soon after the dimensions of the outbreak became clear, the Italian government and health authorities started to implement first containment measures. These included antiviral prophylaxis for people who had close contact to cases and social distancing measures such as the early isolation of cases or preventive school closures. 8 Furthermore, a health education campaign was launched by the Italian Health Ministry to inform the public about simple non-pharmaceutical measures such as regular hand-washing or staying at home if Influenza-like symptoms occur to prevent an infection with the H1N1 virus. 8 By fall 2009, a vaccine against the pandemic flu had become available but only four percent of Italy's overall target population consisting of high risk groups such as healthcare workers, pregnant women or institutionalised children and adolescents got immunised. 7 A failure of the governmental communication strategy might have caused this uncertainty regarding the adherence to the vaccination recommendations among the Italian public. 7, 9 Thus, the public was concerned about the H1N1 influenza but -as the low vaccination coverage shows -it was even more insecure regarding the recommended vaccination.