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| LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
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| Year : 2014 | Volume
: 7
| Issue : 1 | Page : 96 |
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Knowledge attitude and practices regarding hepatitis 'B' among class IV hospital workers of tertiary care teaching hospital in Pune, India
Shankar Bhosale, Sudhanshu Tripathi, Kevin Fernandez
Departments of Community Medicine, Smt. Kashibai Navale Medical College and General Hospital (SKNMC & GH), Narhe, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| Date of Web Publication | 10-Dec-2013 |
Correspondence Address:
Shankar Bhosale
Department of Community Medicine, SKNMC & GH, Narhe, Pune - 411 041, Maharashtra
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0975-2870.122802
How to cite this article:
Bhosale S, Tripathi S, Fernandez K. Knowledge attitude and practices regarding hepatitis 'B' among class IV hospital workers of tertiary care teaching hospital in Pune, India. Med J DY Patil Univ 2014;7:96 |
Sir,
Hepatitis 'B' virus infection is endemic throughout the world [1] Health-care workers including, class IV hospital workers are at risk of acquiring the infection while at work. [2] An estimated 2 billion people have been infected with hepatitis 'B' at some time in their life and 350 million of these cases remain chronic carriers. It is the 10 th leading cause of death worldwide. [3] Lack of knowledge regarding the modes of transmission and methods of prevention is still a threat. This was brought out from a study conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Pune, India with the objective to assess the basic knowledge, attitude, and practices, about viral Hepatitis 'B' among class IV workers. This was a cross-sectional study conducted between May and June 2011.
All the 219 class IV hospital workers of the institution were included in the study. A closed structured questionnaire was used.
A total of 105 (47.9%) respondents knew that Hepatitis 'B' is a viral disease. Unsterilized needles/syringes, contaminated blood and used blades were identified as a mode of transmission of Hepatitis 'B' virus by 118 (53.9%), 112 (51.1%) and 82 (37.4%) class IV hospital workers respectively. About 198 (90.4%) replied that if they were found positive for hepatitis 'B' surface antigen (HBsAg), they would like to have further investigations/treatment. While only 40 (18.3%) class IV hospital workers knew how to destroy/disinfect the blood and body fluids of patients in hospital and only 41 (18.7%) knew that it can be transmitted by tattooing, ear, and nose piercing. On the other hand, 172 (78.6%) hospital health-care workers did not knew that they are at high-risk of Hepatitis 'B' and only 56 (25.6%) got vaccinated against Hepatitis 'B'. This situation regarding Hepatitis B awareness exist not only in India but also seen across the world as reported by various investigators. [2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7]
It can be concluded that class IV hospital workers need to be educated through compulsory, periodic on the job training regarding exposure to risk-factors of Hepatitis 'B' and practical aspect of Hepatitis 'B' transmission, prevention and control measures. Vaccination against Hepatitis 'B' among class IV hospital workers should be made mandatory.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Park K. Parks Text Book of Preventive and Social Medicine. 19 th ed. Jabalpur: MS Banarasidas Bhanot; 2007. p. 285-8. 
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| 2. | Kabir A, Tabatabaei SV, Khaleghi S, Agah S, Faghihi Kashani AH, Moghimi M, et al. Knowledge, attitudes and practice of Iranian medical specialists regarding hepatitis B and C. Hepat Mon 2010;10:176-82.
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| 3. | Alam M, Tariq WU. Knowledge attitude practices about hepatitis B and C among healthy males. Pak J Pathol 2006;17:147-50.
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| 4. | Samuel SO, Aderibigbe SA, Salami TA, Babatunde OA. Health workers' knowledge, attitude and behaviour towards hepatitis B infection in Southern Nigeria. Int J Med Med Sci 2009;1:418-24.
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| 5. | Izegbu MC, Amole OO, Ajayi GO. Attitudes, perception and practice of workers in laboratories in the two colleges of Medicine and their teaching hospitals in Lagos State, Nigeria as regards universal precaution measures. Biomed Res 2006;17:49-54.
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| 6. | Ahmadi Z, Hosseni-Moghdam M, Yaghmaei F, Anisiyan A. Knowledge,attitude and practices of cleaning staff regarding hepatitis B virus at Labafinejad Hospital. 0 J Nurs Midwifery 2007;17:57.
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| 7. | Hussain UA , Aiman U, Sultan M, Batool N, Shahab S, Nizam A, et al. Knowledge attitude practice regarding Hepatitis B in paramedical staff of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Ann Abbasi Shaheed Hosp Karachi Med Dent Coll Jun 2005;10(1):676-80.
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