JEDDAH: About 80 percent of doctors and medical practitioners who took part in a recent survey said they would not take the anti-swine flu vaccine and would not give it to their children.
Dr. Saleh Al-Suqair, an internist and member of the teaching staff at King Saud University in Riyadh, said the survey was carried by Islamtoday.com website. The survey was carried out among medical consultants, university professors and medical students.
The website has published three surveys, the first covering 60 consultants and medical professors who were selected randomly from Saudi hospitals and medical colleges. The survey focused on the opinions of internists, pediatricians and family doctors.
The first was conducted by Dr. Jamal Al-Jarallah of King Saud University with the support of a colleague. It asked medical experts whether they would take the vaccine, whether they would allow their children to take the vaccine, and whether they can convince others of their views.
Out of 60 doctors, 52 (80 percent) said they would not take the vaccine. A similar number of doctors said they would not allow their children to take the vaccine. Only 13 doctors (20 percent) said they would agree to take the vaccine while 11 (17 percent) said they would allow their children to take the vaccine.
Twenty-five of the 52 doctors who had said they would not take the vaccine said they would advise other people not to take the vaccine. But the remaining doctors said they would not advise others.
Al-Suqair said the second survey covered consultants at clinical pharmacies, dentists and health experts, adding that all of the participants unanimously said that they would not take the vaccine and would not give it to their children.
According to another survey conducted by a professor at King Saud University’s College of Medicine, the bulk of 226 final year medical students opposed taking the vaccine.
As many as 198 students (88 percent) said they would not approve taking the vaccine while 28 students said they would.
