A hepatitis B vaccination programme in a group of dental practitioners

Abstract

A questionnaire concerning the acceptance of hepatitis B vaccination was mailed in April 1985 to 626 private dentists practicing in Milano and its county. Two hundred and twenty eight dentists (36.4%) filled out the questionnaire, 166 of them indicating their willingness to receive the vaccine. Between October 1985 and February 1986 we tested 241 practitioners for HBs antigen, anti-HBs and anti-HBc antibody, and SGPT (ALT) enzyme level. A 14.9% prevalence of HBV markers was found in the prevaccination testing. All persons with positivity for anti-HBs or HBsAg or with elevations of SGPT were excluded from the study (the latter temporarily). A few (42 or 20.9%) left spontaneously before the first dose of vaccine was administered. On the whole, 159 participants began the vaccination course. The proportion of vaccine recipients in dentists who indicated in the questionnaire their willingness to accept the vaccine and/or participated in a seroepidemiological survey performed in 1983 by some of us (85.1%) was significantly greater than that in the group of dentists who did neither (65.0%) (p less than 0.01). Educational effort appeared to be important to enroll and to counsel practitioners in implementing vaccination programme.