Public Health Initiative | Report Study

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH
Public health
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Aims and Objectives of Proposal:...................................................................................................4
Justification for the topic:................................................................................................................4
Underpinning Models/Concepts:.....................................................................................................6
Outline of Proposed Action Plan:....................................................................................................8
Resources/Funding Issues:.............................................................................................................11
Evaluation:.....................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................14

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A public health initiative to assess knowledge of influenza and improve vaccination
uptake among medical students in Central Saudi Arabia
Introduction:
This report will propose a public health initiative to assess the knowledge and increase
uptake of influenza vaccination among medical students in Central Saudi Arabia. It will give
background information about influenza and the justification for choosing medical students
in Saudi Arabia for the public health initiative. The paper will describe the actions planned to
assess the knowledge and perception related to flu vaccination among medical students and
suggest the process to implement social media campaign to enhance knowledge and
eliminate misconceptions about vaccination. The evaluations section will give an overview of
initiatives to track the success of social media campaign and the vaccination program and the
recommendations for improvement in the initiative post eight-nine months of the
implementation of the program.
Influenza is the most common and highly contagious airborne infection resulting in acute
febrile illness and other diverse symptoms like sudden onset of fever, cough, headache,
malaise, sore throat and muscle and joint pain. The symptoms vary from mild sickness to
acute respiratory discomfort as well as death (Lee et al., 2018). Some of the population
groups who are at high risk of influence include patients with other co-morbid conditions like
elderly people, children, immune-compromised individuals, pregnant women and health care
workers. Health care workers are at high risk because of increased exposure to the patients
and the likelihood of getting the infection after contact with patients (Abalkhail et al., 2017).
According to WHO, the burden of influenza epidemic is understood from the fact that 3 to 5

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million cases of severe illness and about 290, 000 to 650, 000 cases of respiratory deaths
occur due to influenza (WHO 2018). This data exemplifies the need to pay attention to risk
of influenza in high risk groups.
Vaccination is the most effective intervention to prevent influenza and its associated
severe outcomes (Demicheli et al., 2018). WHO has identified six priority groups for
influenza vaccination namely pregnant women, elderly persons, health care workers,
residents of aged care services, children aged 6-59 years and people with more than six
months of chronic disease. To reduce the burden of serious complications from influenza
infection, WHO has recommended that health care staffs and other risk groups should be
vaccinated every year before the start of autumn (WHO, 2018). In UK, the NICE guideline
mandates the need to increase uptake of flu vaccination by using multi-component approach,
raising awareness, increasing vaccination and enhancing uptake rate in health and social care
staffs. The significance of this document is that it will facilitate collaboration with
intervention developers and other local stakeholders to increase vaccination uptake (NICE,
2018). NHS England has implemented initiatives to boost the uptake of flu vaccinations and
they are directing NHS trusts to ensure that vaccines are readily available (NHS England,
2017). However, the weakness of the NHS action is that it targeted support to improving the
clinical education environment, but no suggestions was proposed to implement educational
campaigns for health care workers. This proposal will enlighten about the effective steps to
implement wider educational campaigns for raising awareness about the benefits of
vaccination.