Hepatitis B Awareness Among Medical Students And Their Vaccination Status In A Medical College In Western Up.

ABSTRACT

Background:India is in the intermediate hepatitis B virus endemicity zone with hepatitis B surface antigen prevalence among the general population ranging from 2% to 8%.Health care professionals are at a high risk of getting .Hep B infection which can be prevented by strategies like vaccination, increasing awareness and following universal precautions. The present study was conducted on medical students (3rd Semester) to evaluate their knowledge regarding HBVand to know their vaccination status. Also along with data collection, students were educated about hepatitis B vaccine and about universal precautions before they start with their clinical postings.Methods:Cross sectional study was carried out on 3rd semester MBBS students (batch 2012-2013). All the students present on the day of data collection were included in the study and interviewed using pretested questionnaire. Data was analyzed using percentages. Results: Most of the students had good knowledge about disease and modes of transmission & prevention. Surprisingly only 56.6 percent were aware of high risk of transmission to health professional and doctors. Main source of information was media (85.4percent).Nearly 82% of the students were immunized and main reason among those unimmunized was unawareness about vaccine availability.Conclusions:It is recommended that Hepatitis B vaccination should be made available for all unimmunized students who enter medical profession. The orientation and sensitization programm should be held to create awareness regarding HBVinfection preferably at the time of admission into medical college ,else no later than start of their clinical posting.