Abdul Rauf Memon, Munir Ahmed Sheikh, Salahuddin Afsar, Badar Fayaz Zubairi, Rashid Qadeer, Inayat Baloch.
Hepatitis B vaccination status and knowledge, attitude, practices of health care workers (HCWS) regarding Hepatitis B and C in a tertiary care setting of Karachi.
Infect Dis J Jan ;16(4):105-7.

Objectives: 1. To determine the frequency of hepatitis B vaccination status of HCWs, their wives and children. 2. To determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices of HCWs regarding hepatitis B and C. Design: Cross sectional and interview based. Place and duration: Civil Hospital Karachi from July 2006 to December 2006. Subject and methods: HCWs in close contact with patients for more than three years were interviewed on a structured questionnaire, containing demographic information of health care workers, screening status for hepatitis B and C, hepatitis B vaccination, and their knowledge, attitude and practices regarding Hepatitis B and C infections. The results were entered and analyzed on SPSS version 15. Results: A total of 250 health care workers were interviewed. 122 were male. There were 122 nurses, 67 doctors, 32 Operation Theater / laboratory technicians, and 29 sanitary workers. The mean age was 37.88 ± 8.6. 52 % were vaccinated, 33.6 % were not vaccinated, and 14.4% were partially vaccinated. Only 27.6% of the spouses of these health care workers were vaccinated. Post vaccination hepatitis B antibodies status was checked only in 2% of the cases. 37.2% of the children of health care workers received complete 3 doses of vaccine.36% and 28.8% of the HCWs were screened for hepatitis B and C respectively. 93% knew their risk due to their occupation, 61% were aware of all modes of transmission for hepatitis B and C viruses, while 88% were aware of only parenteral modes of transmission of disease. 78% knew that hepatitis B can be prevented by vaccination and 50% knew about safe practices for preventing transmission of infection. Conclusion: Almost 50% of HCW are not vaccinated for hepatitis B. Even those who are vaccinated, most did not check their immunity status. Most HCWs were not screened for HBV & HCV infection. Knowledge of spread of these infections is inadequate. Significant numbers of HCWs are not observing safe practices to prevent transmission.

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