Tackling Biological Risk in the Workplace: Updates and Prospects Regarding Vaccinations for Subjects at Risk of Occupational Exposure in Italy

Abstract

Occupational activities may expose workers to a variety of risks. Exposure to biological agents constitutes a traditional risk in numerous occupational settings. Legislative Decree (D.Lgs.) 81/2008 constitutes the main Italian legislative basis for the management and the prevention of biological risk in occupational settings and lists the available vaccinations against each single biological agent. The 2017–2019 National Vaccination Prevention Plan (PNPV) identifies some categories of workers for whom specific vaccinations are indicated. In this context, the occupational physician identifies work processes that are at risk—identifying susceptible workers and providing information on health monitoring—and is responsible for ensuring that vaccinations are carried out. Adequate and thorough evaluation of risk are indispensable to appropriate consultation by the occupational physician in order to enable the employer to provide efficacious vaccinations. Close collaboration among the services of occupational medicine, vaccination clinics, and healthcare management together with the implementation of vaccination programs that are agreed upon at the institutional level provides an opportunity to reduce the number of workers who are susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases, thereby yielding benefits in terms of biological risk management in the workplace and contributing to increasing vaccination coverage rates, which in many cases are currently unsatisfactory.