title: [Susceptibility to measles and varicella in healthcare workers in a tertiary hospital in Catalonia].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To estimate the susceptibility to measles and varicella (chickenpox) in healthcare workers in a public tertiary level teaching hospital, in Catalonia.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prevalence study was conducted from January 2006 to December 2008 on 2,752 workers who had serology performed for the determination of measles or varicella by ELISA test during a health examination. Data were analysed by, sex, age, professional category and work unit.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 153 healthcare workers were susceptible to measles and 187 to varicella. The susceptibility of healthcare workers to measles was 6.04% (95% CI: 5.78 to 6.30), and to varicella it was 7.45% (95% CI: 7.14 to 7.75). The highest susceptibility to measles was in resident physicians with 14% (95% CI: 10.8 to 18.5). In high-risk services, where highly immunocompromised patients are attended, the susceptibility of workers was slightly higher than the rest to measles (6.32% vs 5.93%) and varicella (8.34% vs 7.09%). Healthcare workers born after 1980 were 20 times (95% CI: 11.0 to 37.2) more likely to be susceptible to measles, and 2 times (95% CI: 1.2 to 3.2) more likely to be susceptible to varicella than those those born before 1965.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The susceptibility to measles in healthcare workers in our centre is higher in younger cohorts, with values higher than expected in a community with high vaccination coverage against measles, mumps, rubella vaccine (MMR) in the paediatric population for many years.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Enfermería, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain. MariaIsabel.FernandezC@uab.cat
authors.forename: María Isabel
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Fernández-Cano
authors.forename: Lluís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Armadans
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sulleiro
authors.forename: Meritxell
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Espuga
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ferrer
authors.forename: Xavi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Martínez-Gómez
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vaqué
authors.forename: Magda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Campins
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D002644:Chickenpox / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005260:Female; D014645:Herpesvirus 3, Human / Q000276:immunology; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D017758:Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D008457:Measles / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008459:Measles virus / Q000276:immunology; D008875:Middle Aged; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012306:Risk; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G