Details
Category: Volume 07 Issue 04 April 2019
Hits: 1141

Title: Hepatitis B awareness and vaccine coverage among students of a north Indian medical College

Authors: Dr Nida Nowreen, Dr Sonika Sangra

 DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v7i4.151

Abstract

Background: Hepatitis B infection is caused by Hepatitis B virus (HBV) which is transmitted via exposure to infected blood and body fluids. The risk of contracting hepatitis B infection, has been recognized as an occupational risk for health care practitioners (HCP) due to their exposure prone nature of work. Since proper vaccination can prevent HBV infection, complete hepatitis B vaccination is strongly recommended for health-care personnel, including medical students and students of other health professions.

Aims and Objective: This study was undertaken with an aim to evaluate the knowledge regarding Hepatitis B infection, its prevention and immunisation status among medical students.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional questionnaire based study was conducted among 127 medical students. The questionnaire had three parts for socio-demographic data, questions with reference to Hepatitis B and regarding hepatitis B immunization status.

Results: The response rate was 94.77%. The knowledge scores as assessed by the second part of the questionnaire revealed that all the participants had fair to good knowledge with reference to the disease, transmission, sources of infection, and prevention of infection. The number of students that were completely vaccinated, partially vaccinated and unvaccinated was 59(46.45%),45 (35.43%)  and 23 (18.11%)  respectively.

Conclusion: The medical students had fairly adequate knowledge regarding the disease and its prevention but the vaccination practices among them were not satisfactory. This demonstrates a huge gap between knowledge and practice among students which needs to be addressed by health awareness and Hepatitis B vaccination programs in medical colleges.

Keywords: Knowledge, Hepatitis B, vaccination, medical students. 

References

  1. Park JE, Park K. Text Book of Preventive and Social Medicine, 19th Edition. M.S. Banarsidas Bhanot, 2007;267.
  2. Meireles LC, Marinho RT, Damme PV. Three decades of hepatitis B control with vaccination. World J Hepatol. 2015 Aug 28;7(18):2127-2132.
  3. World Health Organization (2011) Hepatitis B. Fact sheet no:204. Available: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs204/en (Accessed 2019 Feb 20)
  4. Zafar A, Aslam N, Nasir N, Meraj R, Mehraj V. Knowledge, attitudes and practices of health care workers regarding needle stick injuries at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan. J Pak Med Assoc. 2008 Feb;58(2):57–60.
  5. Mahoney FJ, Stewart K, Hu H, Coleman P, Alter MJ. Progress toward the elimination of hepatitis B virus transmission among health care workers in the United States. Arch Intern Med. 1997 Dec 8-22;157(22):2601–5.
  6. Ciorlia L. A. S., Zanetta D. M. T. Hepatitis B in healthcare workers: prevalence, vaccination and relation to occupational factors, Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 384–389, 2005.
  7. Patterson JM, Novak CB, Mackinnon SE, Ellis RA. Needlestick injuries among medical students. Am J Infect Control. 2003;31:226–30.
  8. Oliveira LC, Pontes JP. Frequency of hepatitis B immunity and occupational exposures to body fluids among Brazilian medical students at a public university. Rev Inst Med Trop São Paulo. 2010;52:247–52. 
  9. Colin S, Edgar S, Lyn F, et al. Hepatitis B virus infection: epidemiology and vaccination. Epidemiol Rev2006;28.
  10. Van Damme and J. W. Ward, Hepatitis B Vaccines, in Plotkin’s Vaccines, pp. 342–374, Elsevier, 2018
  11. Lahariya C, Subramanya BP, Sosler S. An assessment of hepatitis B vaccine introduction in India: Lessons for roll out and scale up of new vaccines in immunization programs. Indian J Public Health. 2013;57:8–14. 
  12. World Health Organization. Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis 2016-2021: Towards Ending Viral Hepatitis. Geneva: World Health Organization; Jun 2016.
  13. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Immunization of health-care personnel: recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) MMWR Recomm Rep. 2011;60(RR-7)):1–45. 
  14. Siraj F, Fareed P, Mahajan N.Assessment of knowledge attitude and practice towards hepatitis B among health care workers in a tertiary care hospital. Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynecol 2016;5:58-61.
  15. Avjot Mighlani. Knowledge and Awareness Regarding Hepatitis B Vaccination among Medical Fraternity. International Journal of Basic and Applied Medical Sciences. 2014;4(2):99-102.
  16. Giri MR, Panda JK, Sahoo AK. Hepatitis B awareness and vaccination status among first year medical students. Int J Community Med Public Health 2016;3:530-2
  17. Vinodhkumaradithyaa A, Srinivasan M, Sankarasubramanian R, et al. Hepatitis B vaccination among medical students. Indian J Community Med. 2008;33(1):67–68.
  18. Tilzey AJ. Hepatitis B vaccine boosting: the debate continues. 1995;345:1000–1.
  19. Rathi A, Kumar V, Majhi J, Jain S, Lal P, Singh S. Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practices toward prevention of hepatitis B infection among medical students in a high-risk setting of a newly established medical institution. J Lab Physicians. 2018;10(4):374–379.

Corresponding Author

Dr Nida Nowreen

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.