[Prevalence of hepatitis B antibodies in health-care workers in Yasuj Hospitals]

ABSTRACT

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. 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. 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. 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