Voluntary Hepatitis A Campaigns for Food Handlers and Day Care Workers: Evaluation of Participation and Barriers

Bosarreyes, Rebecca L., Voluntary Hepatitis for Food Handlers and Daycare Workers: Evaluation of Participation and Barriers. Master of Public Health (Community Health), May 2001, 84 pp., 20 Tables, references, 32 titles. Food-borne illness is a continuing problem in the United States. Individual’s desire for fast and ready to eat food has contributed to the trend. Ready to eat foods increase risk for spread of viral infections, like hepatitis A. Vaccination of service workers against hepatitis A could decrease this risk. Two recent voluntary vaccination campaigns in North Texas attempted to vaccinate this target group. Both campaigns had low vaccination rates. This study assessed barriers impeding access to the campaigns. Barriers included dissemination of information, knowledge about the disease among the target groups, cost of vaccine, and language spoken by some of the target group. The study findings showed that these barriers combined contribution to the low vaccination rates for the campaign.