Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Apr 2:2018:6705305.
doi: 10.1155/2018/6705305. eCollection 2018.

Attitude and Vaccination Status of Healthcare Workers against Hepatitis B Infection in a Teaching Hospital, Ethiopia

Mohammed Akibu  1 , Sodere Nurgi  1 , Mesfin Tadese  1 , Wendwesen Dibekulu Tsega  2
Affiliations

Attitude and Vaccination Status of Healthcare Workers against Hepatitis B Infection in a Teaching Hospital, Ethiopia

Mohammed Akibu et al. Scientifica (Cairo). .

Abstract

Background: World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend all health professionals to get vaccinated against hepatitis B virus before they start the clinical attachments during their stay in the medical school. However, only 18-39% of healthcare workers in low- and middle-income countries received the vaccine. Therefore, this study aims to determine the attitude and vaccination status of health professionals working at Adama General Hospital and Medical College.

Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2016 to February 2017 with 403 health professionals working at Adama General Hospital and Medical College. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaire distributed at the participant's work unit and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify factors that affect the complete vaccination status and p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Result: The prevalence of complete vaccination against hepatitis B virus was 25.6%. The most frequently mentioned reasons for not being vaccinated were high cost of the vaccine (41%) and unavailability of the vaccine (36%). More than three-fourths (77.8%) of study participants strongly agreed that hepatitis B is a major public health threat and there was tendency among participants to believe that their profession will put them at increased risk of acquiring the disease (strongly agreed: 75.9%). Attending infection-prevention training [AOR = 2.3; 95% CI, 1.24-6.31], history of exposure to risky behavior [AOR = 5.5; 95% CI, 2.86-9.29], and long years of work experience [AOR = 3.1; 95% CI, 1.98-5.24] were statistically significant with complete vaccination status.

Conclusion: Only one-quarter of health professionals received the recommended full dose of the vaccine. Sustained hepatitis B vaccination programs for healthcare workers need to be established by collaboration of different stakeholders to optimize health professionals' safety against this contagious infection.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. World Health Organization (2011) Hepatitis B. Fact sheet no: 204. 2011 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs204/en.
    1. Koff R. Immunologically mediated extra hepatic manifestations of viral hepatitis. In: Krawitt EL., Wiesner RH., editors. Autoimmune liver disease. New York: Raven; 1991.
    1. Lavanchy D. Hepatitis B virus epidemiology, disease burden, treatment, arid current and emerging prevention and control measures. Journal of Viral Hepatitis. 2004;11(2):97–107. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2893.2003.00487.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Molinari J. A. Infection control: Its evolution to the current standard precautions. The Journal of the American Dental Association. 2003;134(5):569–574. doi: 10.14219/jada.archive.2003.0222. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Awases M. J., Nyoni A. G., Chatora R. Migration of health professionals in six countries: a synthesis report. Brazzaville: World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa; 2004.

LinkOut - more resources