survey of hepatitis B infection awareness and prevalence of vaccinated dental students in teaching institutions of Karachi

ABSTRACT

The Hepatitis B virus [HBV] is an extremely infectious blood borne pathogen. There are estimated 350 million chronic carriers worldwide. 1 In comparison to other viruses, HBV differs mainly in its higher infectivity and preventability. Several published reports have raised concerns over the risk of medical students related to occupational blood exposures during the clinical medical training. 27, 29 It is important to emphasize that the training period in dentistry is associated with a greater frequency of exposure to blood borne pathogens than in medicine. 30 Such hazardous exposures are not infrequent among local health care workers. Further the training of undergraduates is also not well structured to prepare and prevent them from occupational exposures of infections. We conducted a survey to determine the awareness of hepatitis B virus infection and prevalence of vaccinated dental students in the teaching institutions of Karachi. A questionnaire survey was conducted about awareness, prevention, transmission of hepatitis B infection and vaccination against hepatitis B, from students of all five dental institutes in Karachi. Total of 590 students replied, with 243 [42%] students from pre-clinical and 347 [58%] from the clinical years. Frequency of vaccinated dental students was 86.16% in clinical whereas 74.89 among pre clinical students [p-value 0.01]. Knowledge of transmission and awareness was high amongst the clinical students as compared with pre-clinical [p-value 0.01]. Preclinical students were more aware about the prevention of HBV infection than clinical students [p-value 0.01]. A considerable proportion of students is not vaccinated against hepatitis B. In our sample clinical dental students had inadequate knowledge regarding prevention of HBV infection. Strategies need to be developed by the concerned authorities for prevention HBV infection in dental professional during their training and education