Dev Kansara, S Kuyare Sunil, Abhay Gupta, Gajanan Khote, Akash Shukla, Bisure Kishore
Medical Student, HBT Medical College and Dr. RN Cooper Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Ex-Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology,HBT Medical College and Dr. RN Cooper Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra.
J Assoc Physicians India. 2018 Dec;66(12):27-30.
Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk of hepatitis B virus infection (HBI) and so the present study was carried out to assess the knowledge of HCWs in a tertiary care medical college about HBI and hepatitis B vaccine (HBV).
After obtaining approval from Institutional Ethics Committee and informed consent from the study participants, HCWs that included teaching faculty, resident doctors, medical students, nurses, laboratory technicians, administrative staff and support staff (ward boys, attendants and sweepers) were administered a validated questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was applied for the categorical variables and the Chi-square test of association was used to assess the statistical significance of variables.
A total of 300 HCWs were recruited for the study. Although, the overall knowledge amongst all the HCWs was found to be 68%, only 35.3%HCWs knew the transmission risk by needle stick injury (NSI). Similarly, only 40% correctly knew the precautions to be taken for preventing an NSI and 17% for the steps to be taken to disinfect a blood splash. Almost 92.7% (278/300) HCWs were aware about the availability of a vaccine, of which only 41% (1123/300) knew that vaccine will not work in case the patient is already infected. When asked about the steps to be taken in case of an NSI in non-vaccinated HCWs, only 54.7% (164/300) replied about treatment with both immunoglobulin and vaccination. A total of 160 (53.3%) HCWs were found to be vaccinated. The most common reason for not taking vaccination included an improper understanding of HBV and the infection it causes.
To conclude, the study highlights good knowledge about hepatitis B infection with requirement of more emphasis on the practical aspects of management in a case of NSI/blood splash and can guide to improve the vaccination status and knowledge of HBI amongst HCWs.
医护人员感染乙型肝炎病毒（HBI）的风险很高，因此开展本研究以评估一所三级医疗学院的医护人员对HBI和乙型肝炎疫苗（HBV）的了解情况。
在获得机构伦理委员会批准并征得研究参与者的知情同意后，向包括教师、住院医生、医学生、护士、实验室技术人员、行政人员和辅助人员（病房勤杂工、护工和清洁工）在内的医护人员发放一份经过验证的问卷。对分类变量应用描述性统计，采用卡方关联检验评估变量的统计学意义。
本研究共招募了300名医护人员。尽管所有医护人员的总体知晓率为68%，但只有35.3%的医护人员知道针刺伤（NSI）的传播风险。同样，只有40%的人正确知道预防NSI应采取的预防措施，17%的人知道应对血液飞溅采取的步骤。几乎92.7%（278/300）的医护人员知道有疫苗，其中只有41%（123/300）知道如果患者已经感染，疫苗将不起作用。当被问及未接种疫苗的医护人员发生NSI时应采取的步骤时，只有54.7%（164/300）的人回答应同时使用免疫球蛋白和疫苗进行治疗。共有160名（53.3%）医护人员接种了疫苗。未接种疫苗的最常见原因包括对HBV及其引起的感染理解不当。
总之，该研究突出了对乙型肝炎感染的良好认知，但需要更加强调NSI/血液飞溅情况下管理的实际方面，并且可以指导提高医护人员中HBI的疫苗接种率和认知水平。
