Prevalence of Hepatitis B Antibodies in Health-Care Workers in Yasuj Hospitals
ABSTRACT: Introduction & Objective: Hepatitis B is a common infection in the world and one of the main health problems in our country. Over 350 million people are infected with Hepatitis B virus in the world and are chronic carriers of this infection. Health care workers are at risk of infectio...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fas |
| Published: |
Yasuj University Of Medical Sciences
2007-01-01
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| Series: | Armaghane Danesh Bimonthly Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://armaghanj.yums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-39-83&slc_lang=en&sid=1 |
| Summary: | ABSTRACT:
Introduction & Objective: Hepatitis B is a common infection in the world and one of the main health problems in our country. Over 350 million people are infected with Hepatitis B virus in the world and are chronic carriers of this infection. Health care workers are at risk of infection with blood born viruses including hepatitis B (HBV). This study was conducted to find out the rate of anti-HBs antibodies among the health-care workers (HCW) in Yasuj hospitals, Southwest of Iran.
Materials & Methods: This is a cross sectional descriptive study in which 212 staff was randomly selected from different wards of the hospitals in Yasuj. Blood samples were taken from each individual and tested for hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs) by ELISA. Those who had anti-HBs titer > 10 IU/ml were considered as positive. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive data analysis and chi-square test.
Results: 61.3% of the subjects were female and 38.7% were male. 93.9% of the subjects had a history of one to three doses of hepatitis B vaccination. Results of this study showed that 185 (87.3%) of the staff have anti hepatitis B antibodies (Anti-HBs). Among the staff that was negative for anti-HBs antibody, 12 had a history of hepatitis B vaccination (at least one dose). Female employees were more positive than males (93% vs. 78%) and this difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). Moreover, a positive correlation was found between the titer of antibody and sex where females had a higher titer of antibody in comparison with males (p<0.05). No correlation was found between the workplace of HCW and positive anti-HBS.
Conclusion: Result of this study indicates that more than 85 percent of the health-care workers in Yasuj have reasonable immunity against hepatitis B infection. A small proportion of HCWs had no immunity against HBV. The second course of hepatitis B vaccine should be delivered to those who had no immunity against hepatitis B despite their receiving the first course of vaccination. |
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| ISSN: | 1728-6506 1728-6514 |