Table 1 Demographic characteristics of the 146 public health professionals working in the field of infectious diseases who completed the survey ‘Perceived utility and feasibility of pathogen genomics for public health practice’, Belgium, 2019
Variables | Frequency | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
Primary employer | ||
 Public sector | 77 | 53% |
 Private sector | 12 | 8% |
 Hospital (including university hospital) | 53 | 36% |
 University | 4 | 3% |
Professional background | ||
 Epidemiologist | 31 | 21% |
 Microbiologist | 28 | 19% |
  National Reference Center | 19 | 68% |
  Sentinel/peripheral laboratory | 7 | 25% |
  Other | 2 | 7% |
 Molecular biologist | 16 | 11% |
 Bioinformatician | 5 | 3% |
 Clinical biologist | 17 | 12% |
 Clinician | 19 | 13% |
 Hospital hygienist | 7 | 5% |
 Infection control practitioner | 7 | 5% |
 Policy maker | 4 | 3% |
 Other | 12 | 8% |
Age | ||
 <25 | 3 | 2% |
 25-34 | 42 | 29% |
 35-44 | 36 | 25% |
 45-54 | 32 | 22% |
 55-64 | 29 | 20% |
 >65 | 4 | 3% |
Years of professional experience in the field of infectious diseases | ||
 No experience | 2 | 1% |
 <1 | 0 | 0% |
 1-5 | 32 | 22% |
 6-10 | 30 | 21% |
 >10 | 77 | 53% |
Position within institute/company | ||
 Employee | 44 | 30% |
 Lower management | 43 | 29% |
 Middle management | 36 | 25% |
 Upper management | 15 | 10% |
 Other | 8 | 5% |
Discipline(s) (multi-discipline designation was allowed) | ||
 Human | 119 | 82% |
 Food/feed | 33 | 23% |
 Animal | 26 | 18% |
 Environmental | 13 | 9% |
Infectious diseases group(s) (multi-group designation was allowed) | ||
 Respiratory infections (e.g. influenza) | 80 | 55% |
 Invasive bacterial diseases (e.g. Neisseria meningitidis) | 75 | 51% |
 Vaccine-preventable diseases (e.g. measles virus) | 52 | 36% |
 Consumption-related infectious diseases (e.g. Salmonella) | 75 | 51% |
 Body-fluid related infectious diseases (e.g. HIV, hepatitis, STIs) | 58 | 40% |
 Environmental-related infectious diseases (e.g. malaria) | 45 | 31% |
 Healthcare-associated infections (e.g. Clostridium difficile, MRSA) | 72 | 49% |
 Animal diseases | 20 | 14% |