Evaluation of Health Professionals Facing Influenza Pandemics

摘要

In 2009 there was a pandemic of a new virus, the Influenza A H1N1. Due to its great capacity to spread,it was targeted by society. Thus, there was the importance of health professionals trained to perform diagnosis,treatment, prevention and control. In order to evaluate the knowledge of health professionals about the H1N1influenza in 2009; a transversal study was made with public health professionals, who work in a general hospital,located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During the vaccination campaign, held in March 2010, we applied aquestionnaire that included demographic variables, self-perception of knowledge and information about thedisease. The study population consisted of 593 individuals. The mean age was 38.9 years old (SD ± 11.96).62.0% were women, 32.8% men and 5.1% unknown sex. The doctors represented 20.1%, nurses 31.1%, 14.5%from others areas of health, 25.0% from others areas but not health and 38% didn’t answer. Approximately 6%classify knowledge as Very Good, 38.25% as Good, 44.4% as Regular and 11.6% as Insufficient. Whenanalyzing general knowledge about the disease and the identification of symptoms of severe cases, the scorecould range from 0 to 5, and it was obtained an average of 3.6 (SD ± 1.1) and 2.5 (SD ± 1.3), respectively. Theresults indicate that the knowledge shown by health professionals is inadequate. This group has an importantrole to face a possible second wave caused by this virus. Thus, it’s necessary to reinforce the importance ofcontinuous education actions and information targeted to that audience, as well as the supporting of its planningand organization.