ABSTRACT
Objectives: To determine the extent of awareness regarding viral hepatitis B amongst health care providers at primary health care level and their tendency to get vaccinated against viral Hepatitis B in a union council of District Lahore, Pakistan
Material and Methods: Across sectional study conducted on all health care providers of UC 120, District Lahore providing primary health care, using a pre designed questionnaire and data analyzed by Epi Info
Results: All 256 HOPs were interviewed who belonged to various categories recognizable at primary health care level starting from doctors to quacks and spiritual healers. 26[10.1%] HCPs were either unaware of the risk they had from viral hepatitis or did not know about the availability of any vaccination. 139 [54.3%] got vaccinated and out of them 124 [89.2%] got 3 doses or more, with 70 [50.4%] receiving it between 1 to 4 years ago. Out of 117 [45.7%] who failed to get vaccinated, 26 [22.2%] lacked knowledge and 38 [32.5%] had no obvious reason to avoid vaccination, only being 'lazy". 51 [43.6%] had a strong belief contrary to present medical knowledge to avert vaccination and 2 [1.7%] could not afford to get the vaccine. Only 1 HOP got her Anti HBs titers done and even that abroad. Dentists were a community fully vaccinated while spiritual healers and hakims were as a whole unvaccinated
Conclusions: There is reasonable awareness regarding viral hepatitis [90%] amongst health care providers, yet demanding more effort on part of government regarding health education targeting health care providers. The vaccination status against Hepatitis B is comparable to that in tertiary care hospitals and again demands legislative and authoritative intervention on part of the government to get health personnel vaccinated