Hepatitis B: knowledge, attitude and practices of dental house officers

ABSTRACT

Hepatitis B is a virus of great concern for healthcare providers, with an increasing prevalence in Pakistan. Dentists are blamed for this as negligence in infection control procedures [improper instru-ment sterilization, reuse] has led to this surge. The study was aimed to collect information regarding knowledge, attitude as well as practices about Hepatitis B infection by 200 house officers in dental colleges of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.A KAP survey was done in Dec 2017 with pretested questionnaire having queries regarding knowl-edge, attitude and protective measures to prevent transmission of Hepatitis B. SPSS 16.0 software was utilized for data analysis. There were 136 [68%] female participants and 64 [32%] males were participants with mean age of 23.6+1.2 .The results showed that the dental professionals were quite aware of Hepatitis B and its transmission [62.5%].92.5% responded that without proper infection control measures one can acquire it. They were well informed about Hepatitis B vaccination [89.5%], precautions and droplet isolation procedures. However, continuous educational programs on isolation precautions and infection control measures can reduce the chances of cross infection