Abstract
BackgroundCurrently, there is an increased flow of refugees into Ethiopia from neighboring countries. However, there are no post-arrival screening mechanisms for hepatitis B and C viruses which could be an additional burden for the local population. Hence, this study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated risk factors for hepatitis B and C viruses among refugees in Gambella, Ethiopia. It also aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice concerning hepatitis B and C viruses among participants.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 453 refugees in Gambella, Ethiopia from January until May 2018. A questionnaire was used to collect data on refugees’ socio-demographic, risk factors, and KAP of hepatitis B and C infections. Five milliliters of blood sample were collected from each participant and the serum was used for HBsAg and anti-HCV antibody screening rapid tests. Positive samples were further tested by ELISA method. Data were performed using SPSS version 20, and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsThe overall prevalence of HBsAg and anti-HCV among refugees was 7.3% (33/453) and 2.0% (9/453) respectively. Of these, 6.8% (25/370) and 1.4% (5/370) of females were positive for HBsAg and anti-HCV, whereas 9.6% (8/83) and 4.8% (4/83) of males were positive for HBsAg and anti-HCV. The age group of 18–29 and 30–41 years old were related to HCV infection (P = 0.003 and P = 0.020). However, proposed risk factors were not related to HBV and HCV infections. Knowledge assessment showed that 86.5% (392/453) did not know how HBV and HCV infections are transmitted, and 86.8% (393/453) had no information about the availability of HBV vaccine.ConclusionThis study showed intermediate prevalence of hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus in a large refugee camp in Ethiopia. The prevalence of hepatitis C virus was found to increase with age, but no other risk factor for either virus identified as significant. Refugees’ understanding of hepatitis B and C was very limited. This indicates the need for screening policy to be implemented and integrated with other health services and awareness creation about the infection in all refugee camps of Gambella.
Highlights
There is an increased flow of refugees into Ethiopia from neighboring countries
The majority of the people, 40–80% living with chronic hepatitis B or C are unaware of their serostatus and they remain infectious to others [2]
Based on the above evidence, the current study revealed an intermediate prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV), 2.0%, which might be because of lack of knowledge about the transmission and prevention of HCV infection, lack of access to health care services, and the inability to obtain healthcare information from the media, or it could be due to the exposure of HCV in their country of origin
Summary
There is an increased flow of refugees into Ethiopia from neighboring countries. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated risk factors for hepatitis B and C viruses among refugees in Gambella, Ethiopia. Due to HBV and HCV continues to be the most challenging problem in economically poor countries [3]. Refugee populations are at risk of contracting HBV and HCV infections because of a lack of access to health care services and the inability to obtain information about the transmission and prevention ways of these infections from the media [4, 5]. The risk of HBV and HCV transmission is strongly associated with the origin from countries in which these infections are endemic, lack of information on hepatitis prevention, history of sharp injury, blood donation, family history of liver disease, tooth extraction, and tattooing [7]
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