Effectiveness of influenza vaccination: a survey within the Italian Ministry of Health personnel.

An initiative of active prevention, to promote an influenza vaccination programme, has been carried out in the Ministry of Health of Rome, Directorate General of Health Prevention: during October 2004 influenza vaccine has been actively offered to all the employees; 46 out of the 129 workers (about 36% of the total) accepted to be vaccinated. Afterward, the propensity to get influenza of the vaccinated has been compared with that of a control group, operating in the same setting, but not vaccinated. Taking into account that the groups in question is far too small, the statistical results showed that influenza vaccination of healthy working adults did not reduce the rates of influenza-like-illness (ILI), in addition, the difference between average duration of disease in unvaccinated persons was not statistically significant.