Bilal Bin Younis, Gulsena Masood Khan, Parveen Akhtar, Mohammad Akbar Chaudary.
Vaccination against Hepatitis B among doctors at a teaching hospital in Lahore.
Pak J Med Sci Jan ;17(4):229-32.

Background: Hepatitis B is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality, but the disease is preventable, specially through awareness of its spread, screening and vaccination. Setting: Study was done at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital/Fatima Jinnah Medical College to examine the vaccination status against Hepatitis B among the doctors from the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, Gynae and Pathology. Material and Methods: In this descriptive study, a total of 110 doctors participated. It took into account different aspects like their vaccination status, status of the booster dose, whether they checked their immunologic status before or after vaccination and reason for not being vaccinated. Results: A total of 71.8% of doctors working in the institution were vaccinated. The results showed that the status was better in the female doctors. A total of 81.5% consultants got themselves vaccinated followed by 74.3% house officers and only 63.6% medical officers who were probably most involved with the patients. Regarding the post-vaccination status 87.5% consultants, 7.1% medical officers and none i.e. 0% house officer had their post vaccine antibody titre checked. Among the house officers 66.6% received their booster dose (where applicable) followed by consultants and medical officers. Lack of awareness was mentioned as the biggest reason for not being vaccinated. Conclusion: Awareness through health education regarding Hepatitis B and bringing down the cost through other methods of vaccination is important in this country where the disease is very common.

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