The COVID-19 pandemic has hugely impacted many different aspects of human health, and vaccination is one of the most effective weapons to manage it. However, many different factors, such as age, gender, comorbidities and lifestyles, play a role in the response to infections and vaccines. We carried out this study to evaluate the potential role played by some individual factors in the production of anti-COVID-19 antibodies in the light of personalized and future vaccinology. We conducted an observational study consisting of a retrospective phase, exploiting previous data about anti-COVID-19 antibody responses, with a prospective phase to investigate individual variables through the use of a questionnaire. The antibody response after the COVID-19 vaccination was inversely related to old age, increased BMI and the number of smoking years, while a positive correlation was found with moderate alcohol consumption and especially with circulating levels of vitamin D, as clearly shown by the multivariate regression analysis. Our study showed that a number of variables are involved in the COVID-19 vaccine antibody response. These findings are very important and can be considered in the light of a future and personalized vaccinology.

HIV/AIDS is considered a risk factor for increased mortality due to COVID-19. For this reason, it is essential to include this population in vaccination campaigns. Studies found that antibodies are lower in HIV+ patients than in healthy individuals. The aim of this study was to assess the immune response in a cohort of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccination in order to evaluate the role played by the HIV infection in the efficacy of this vaccine. We carried out a cross-sectional study in the period April-September 2021, involving a cohort of PLWH and a cohort of HIV-uninfected people as the control group. The efficacy of vaccination was high in both groups despite a slight and not significant difference between them. However, important differences were found according to the intensity of the immune response. Specifically, while in the HIV+ group almost a quarter of people had a low response, it is important to remark that the control group had only a high or intermediate response after vaccination. Our results suggest the high efficacy of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in PLWH and the importance to vaccinate against COVID-19 in these patients in order to increase their protection.

Nurses are healthcare professionals who can play a leading role in preventing antimicrobial resistance, given their direct assistance to patients. For this reason, in-depth university training is desirable. This study was conducted to detect possible weak points in the university training about an important public health topic represented by general knowledge about antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. We carried out a survey on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of students attending the Nursing Sciences course at the University of Messina, Italy, by administering an online standardised questionnaire that included general and specific questions about antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. General and specific scores were calculated. Some gaps were found about the knowledge of antibiotics (mean score: 3.6/4) and, especially, antibiotic resistance (mean score: 3.2/5). As expected, most of the incorrect answers to both antibiotic and antibiotic-resistance knowledge were given by students in the first year, but some gaps were also found among students in the last year. Given the growing role nurses can play in combating antibiotic resistance, these findings point to a possible information gap in the study course and highlight the need to enhance the current university training programmes with activities designed to increase knowledge on these important public health issues.