Evaluation of Hepatitis A and B Seroprevalences in Health-Care Workers.

BACKGROUND

Viral hepatitis is still a common and important public health problem for health-care workers around the world and in our country. This study was aimed at determining the immunity status of hepatitis B and hepatitis A in order to vaccinate non-immune workers.

METHODS

The population of this cross-sectional descriptive study, which was conducted retrospectively, consists of all health-care workers who applied to the Occupational Health and Safety Department of the hospital between September 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022, for periodic examination. The files of 1652 health-care workers were examined without selecting the sample and these individuals were included in the study. "Annex 2 form," which was delivered to the employees, was used as a data source in the research. Statistical analyses were performed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Statistics software (SPSS Inc.; Chicago, IL, USA), version 15.0.

RESULTS

In our study, the immunity against hepatitis B in the 18-29 age group, women, singles, and university graduates was statistically significantly higher, and the immunity against hepatitis A of the participants aged 50 and over, men, and primary school graduates was statistically significant and was found to be significantly higher (P <.05).

CONCLUSION

The fact that 90.2% of the participants were immune to hepatitis B and 85.0% of the participants were immune to hepatitis A seems to be related to the success of vaccination programs for health-care workers in our country. It is very important that the immunization status of health-care workers, who are in the high-risk group in terms of infectious diseases, is at the desired level.