Revision of the behavior of Italian universities towards the HBV vaccination and tuberculosis prophylaxis

Diagnostic screening for hepatitis B and tuberculosis infection bears a very important role for health care professionals even considering the decreasing epidemiological trends. According to the WHO predictions in 2030 these diseases will remain at third and fourth places among the causes of death for infectious diseases in industrial countries. The aim of this study is to verify the presence of hepatitis B and tuberculosis prophylaxis among the entry requirements for Medical Schools (MED) and Healthcare Professions Degree (PS) courses in 2011/2012 enrollment announcements. We examined 39 websites of Italian Public and Private Universities and we discovered 38 different announcements for MED and PS courses looking for any reference about hepatitis B and tuberculosis vaccinations and Mantoux skin test. The statistical analysis is descriptive (frequency tables). Hepatitis B vaccination was required in 7 (18.4%) enrollment announcements for MED and 6 (13.6%) for PS, respectively. Tuberculosis vaccination and/or Mantoux skin test were found among requirements of only 10 announcements for MED and 7 for PS, respectively. According to this study there is a great and unexpected variability among the different universities. A homologation of these requirements would be strongly desirable among Italian regions and on the entire national territory.