Investigation on the awareness of hepatitis B virus among health care workers in Nigeria

Ekpenyong Ms,Tawari-Ikeh Ep,Ekpenyong As

doi:10.15761/npc.1000130

Abstract

Hepatitis B is a disease caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which is transmitted through percutaneous or mucosal exposure to infective blood or body fluids. It is a major problem because it can cause chronic infection, resulting in cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure, and even death The main aim of the study was to investigate the Awareness of hepatitis B virus among health care workers at the Federal Medical Centre Asaba, Nigeria; to assess the attitude of health care workers’ vaccination against HBV; and to assess the barrier to predictors for effective hepatitis B virus among health care workers. Two-hundred and fifteen copies of questionnaire were distributed and 161 copies were retrieved, which shown overall response rate of 74.9%. The data was analyzed using SPSS and cross-tabulation, percentage and chi-square utilized. The results revealed that health care workers have poor knowledge of hepatitis B virus; the use of protective material appeared to be influenced by the perceived risk of transmission and majority indicating that overall practices towards hepatitis B virus (HBV) prevention was good. Based on the finding, the study recommends that; there is a need to inform heath care workers (HCN) of the availability of an effecting, safe vaccine that prevent HBV. All health care facilities should have programs designed to minimize risk, including infection control programs; hepatitis B vaccine protocol should be available at each health care facility; and programs need to be implemented to identify HBV positive HCNs and transfer them for appropriate medical management for vaccination.

Highlights

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major global health problem [1,2], especially in Asia, Africa, Southern Europe and Latin America [3]
A safe and effective vaccine against HBV is available throughout world, yet many health care workers in resourcepoor countries remain at risk because they are not vaccinated against hepatitis B virus [8]
It was found that being a doctor was statistically significantly associated with vaccination uptake, with doctors being 2.23 times more likely to be vaccinated than nurse (P=0.049). This finding stands in contrast to a study done in Saudi Arabia which demonstrated an overall compliance to hepatitis B vaccination of 78.7% (37/47) amongst all categories of Hews in ICU. It can be concluded from the study that there was overall lack of knowledge amongst the majority of HCWs, despite a positive attitude in the majority of them

Summary

Introduction

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major global health problem [1,2], especially in Asia, Africa, Southern Europe and Latin America [3]. Health Care Workers (HCWS) may be exposed to the risk of infection with blood-borne viruses (BBVS) such as HBV, hepatitis C virus (HCV and human immunodeficiency virus HIV) via contract with blood (and other body fluids) in the course of their work [7]. A safe and effective vaccine against HBV is available throughout world, yet many health care workers in resourcepoor countries remain at risk because they are not vaccinated against hepatitis B virus [8]. It indicated that the majority of the respondents (57.1% [92/161]) had been employed as Health Care Workers for more than ten years.

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