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This aim of this paper is to describe the trends in the burden of severe lactational mastitis among women in Ireland through an analysis of postnatal mastitis hospital admission rates from 2006 to 2015. Data on all postnatal hospitalisations with principal diagnosis of mastitis were extracted from the Hospital Inpatient Enquiry system. Trends in annual admission rates per 10,000 live births were analysed using non-parametric trend tests. The overall admission rate for lactational mastitis was 24.4/10,000 live births. There was a significant increase in admission rates from 22.7/10,000 in 2006, to 30.9/10,000 in 2015 (Mann Kendall Trend: t=0.64; Sen’s slope=1.46, p=0.01). Ireland has a high hospital admission rate for lactational mastitis, despite very low breastfeeding rates. These two factors may be linked, with low breastfeeding prevalence possibly contributing to low levels of expertise in the management of mastitis, leading to higher complication rates. This is an important area for future research., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

This study assessed the usefulness of email in informing third level students about special MMR clinics being provided on campus during a mumps outbreak in the North West of Ireland. Email messages were sent directly to students, informing them of the clinics, inviting them to make a clinic appointment by email and providing details of walk-in clinics. At the clinics, all 177 attendees were asked to fill out a questionnaire and the response rate was 89% (n=158). Regarding the main sources of information about the vaccination clinics, email was selected by 117 (74%) students, word-of-mouth by 27 (17%), posters/leaflets by 8 (5%), and other sources by 6 (4%). Use of email as a source of information was rated as very good/excellent by 115 (73%), as good by 35 (22%) and poor/fair by 8 (5%). This study demonstrates that email is a useful and acceptable way of informing third level students about immunisation clinics in an outbreak situation.