Abstract

Abstract 
 Hepatitis B virus is a serious global public health problem and health professionals, especially medical and health sciences students are at risk of acquiring infection through occupational exposure. Hence, this study was aimed at assessing medical and health sciences students’ knowledge, attitudes and practices towards HBV transmission and prevention.
 A cross-sectional study was conducted from February to March, 2017 among 190 medical and health sciences students. Study participants were selected using random sampling technique. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.
 Out of 190 distributed questionnaires, all were returned with a response rate of 100%. Majority of the students, 107(56.3%), were in the age group 20 – 24 years. Almost all the respondents had good knowledge about hepatitis B Virus transmission, treatment and prevention. Majorities, 179 (94.2%), of students had good attitudes towards the importance of standard precautions, vaccine and post exposure prophylaxis for HBV prevention. However, the study participants had poor practices towards the prevention of Hepatitis B infections where 164 (86.3%) of the students had not vaccinated against and screened for the virus and 111 (58.4%) of them were not practicing of the standard precautions. 
 This study indicates that participants had good knowledge and attitudes towards hepatitis B virus prevention. However, they had experienced poor practicing while giving healthcare services. 
 Key Words: Poor practices, Prevention, Hepatitis B viral infection, medical and health sciences students

Highlights

  • There are six common known types of hepatitis viruses, namely hepatitis A, B, C, D, E and G; all cause hepatitis, the inflammation of the liver

  • This study indicates that participants had good knowledge and attitudes towards Hepatitis B virus (HBV) prevention

  • The result obtained from this study revealed that the study participants had higher knowledge than their corresponding participants involved in similar study conducted at Haramaya University which showed that only 181 (56.2%) of them had good knowledge.[16]

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Summary

Introduction

There are six common known types of hepatitis viruses, namely hepatitis A, B, C, D, E and G; all cause hepatitis, the inflammation of the liver. Hepatitis B and C viruses are the common causes of chronic liver disease and permanent liver damage. Hepatitis A, E and G are typically transmitted primarily through ingestion of contaminated food and water while hepatitis B, C, and D are primarily transmitted via the mucocutaneous route, unprotected sex, infected blood transfusion, and use of nonsterilized needles and syringes (injection drug use, tattooing, scarification and nosocomial transmission).[1] Hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes serious public health problems worldwide affecting the liver. According to the geographic areas, the global prevalence of chronic HBV infection can be classified into high, intermediate and low endemicity areas. The prevalence of HBV in Africa was estimated to be 8% in West Africa, 5 - 7% in Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa[3] showing that the burden of viral hepatitis was significantly high in Africa as compared to developed countries

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