Background and aim: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is sexually transmitted, one of the three most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in both males and females, and the most common viral STI. A crucial public health strategy to protect people against HPV is vaccination, which has shown its effectiveness in preventing HPV-related diseases. Presently, three types of vaccines are available (bivalent, quadrivalent, and nonvalent), and they all target the two most oncogenic virus genotypes (HPV 16 and 18). In recent years, the need to implement vaccination programmes that include all genders has been discussed in order to achieve herd immunity against HPV. To date, only a few countries have included young males in their vaccination programmes. Thus, our objective with this review is to provide an overview of the epidemiology of HPV and HPV prevention strategies and report the latest findings from the scientific literature.

Objective: Patients often do not eat/drink enough during hospitalization. To enable patients to meet their energy and nutritional requirements, food and catering service quality and staff support are therefore important. We assessed patients’ satisfaction with hospital food and investigated aspects influencing it.Design: We conducted a cross-sectional study collecting patients’ preferences using a slightly modified version of the Acute Care Hospital Foodservice Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (ACHFPSQ). Factor analysis was carried out to reduce the number of food-quality and staff-issue variables. Univariate and multivariate ordinal categorical regression models were used to assess the association between food quality, staff issues, patients’ characteristics, hospital recovery aspects and overall foodservice satisfaction (OS).Setting: A university hospital in Florence, Italy, in the period November–December 2009.Subjects: Hospital patients aged 18+ years (n927).Results: Of the 1288 questionnaires distributed, 927 were returned completely or partially filled in by patients and 603 were considered eligible for analysis. Four factors (explained variance 64·3 %, Cronbach's alphaα_C= 0.856), i.e. food quality (FQ;α_C= 0·74), meal service quality (MSQ;α_C= 0·73), hunger and quantity (HQ;α_C= 0·74) and staff/service issues (SI;α_C= 0·65), were extracted from seventeen items. Items investigating staff/service issues were the most positively rated while certain items investigating food quality were the least positively rated. After ordinal multiple regression analysis, OS was only significantly associated with the four factors: FQ, MSQ, HQ and SI (OR = 17·2, 6·16, 3·09 and 1·75, respectively,P< 0·001), and gender (OR = 1·53,P= 0·024).Conclusions: The most positively scored aspects of foodservice concerned staff/service, whereas food quality was considered less positive. The aspects that most influenced patients’ satisfaction were those related to food quality.

Since health-related quality of life (HRQL) measures are numerous, comparisons have been suggested. To compare three HRQL measures: SF6D, HUI3 and EQ5D. Three questionnaires (SF36, HUI3, EQ5D) were administered to 1,011 patients attending 16 general practices in two Italian cities. Information about patients’ gender, age, education, marital status, smoking, body mass index (BMI) and chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases) were also collected. Questionnaires scores were calculated using the appropriate algorithms; in particular SF6D scores were obtained from SF36 items. Agreement and correlation between questionnaires scores were investigated using Bland and Altman method and Spearman coefficient. The influence of socio-demographic and morbidity indicators on scores was analysed using the nonparametric quantile regression. The Spearman coefficient was about 0.6 for all questionnaires. The 95% limits of agreement of the scores were approximately from −0.5 to 0.3 except for SF6D and EQ5D when they were from −0.4 to 0.2. The measures were influenced by socio-demographic and clinical variables in a similar way, especially SF6D (the index obtained from SF36) and EQ5D, which appeared to be influenced by the same pattern of factors, including gender, chronic diseases, smoking and BMI. Overall, the agreement between questionnaires scores was quite low, whilst the correlation level was good. Questionnaire scores were influenced by socio-demographic and clinical variables in a similar way, especially SF6D and EQ5D. Therefore, the descriptive capacity of SF6D and EQ5D was found to be similar.

Today it is well demonstrated that stethoscopes can be as contaminated as hands, which are a recognized source of Health-Care Associated Infections (HCAIs). Ultraviolet C (UVC) light has proven disinfection capacity and the innovative UVC technology of Light Emitting Diode (LED) shows several potential benefits. To verify whether the use of UVC LEDs is effective and reliable in stethoscope membrane disinfection after prolonged use, a pre-post intervention study was conducted. A total of 1668 five-minute cycles were performed on two UVC LEDs to simulate their use; thereafter, their disinfection capacity was tested on stethoscope membranes used on a previously auscultated volunteer. Then, a further 1249 cycles were run and finally the LEDs were tested to assess performance in reducing experimental contamination by Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli on the stethoscope membrane. Baseline volunteer contamination identified 104 Colony Forming Units (CFUs) while treated Petri dishes had 12 and 15 CFUs (p < 0.001). Statistically significant differences (p < 0.001) were also found relating to the reduction of specific bacteria: in particular, after treatment no CFU were observed for S. aureus and E. coli. UVC LEDs demonstrated the capacity to maintain high levels of disinfection after more than 240 h of use and they were effective against common microorganisms that are causative agents of HCAIs.

Although influenza vaccination is recognized to be safe and effective, recent studies have confirmed that immunization coverage among health care workers remain generally low, especially among medical residents (MRs). Aim of the present multicenter study was to investigate attitudes and determinants associated with acceptance of influenza vaccination among Italian MRs. A survey was performed in 2012 on MRs attending post-graduate schools of 18 Italian Universities. Each participant was interviewed via an anonymous, self-administered, web-based questionnaire including questions on attitudes regarding influenza vaccination. A total of 2506 MRs were recruited in the survey and 299 (11.9%) of these stated they had accepted influenza vaccination in 2011-2012 season. Vaccinated MRs were older (P = 0.006), working in clinical settings (P = 0.048), and vaccinated in the 2 previous seasons (P<0.001 in both seasons). Moreover, MRs who had recommended influenza vaccination to their patients were significantly more compliant with influenza vaccination uptake in 2011-2012 season (P<0.001). "To avoid spreading influenza among patients" was recognized as the main reason for accepting vaccination by less than 15% of vaccinated MRs. Italian MRs seem to have a very low compliance with influenza vaccination and they seem to accept influenza vaccination as a habit that is unrelated to professional and ethical responsibility. Otherwise, residents who refuse vaccination in the previous seasons usually maintain their behaviors. Promoting correct attitudes and good practice in order to improve the influenza immunization rates of MRs could represent a decisive goal for increasing immunization coverage among health care workers of the future.