KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HEPATITIS B INFECTION AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS IN ERBIL CITY, IRAQ
European Scientific Journal December 2013 /SPECIAL/ edition vol.3 ISSN: 1857 - 7881 (Print) e
KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HEPATITIS B INFECTION AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS IN ERBIL CITY, IRAQ
0 Samir M Othman , MBChB, MSc, PhD Abubakir M Saleh, MBChB, MSc, PhD Nazar P Shabila, MBChB, MSc , PhD College of Medicine, Hawler Medical University , Erbil , Iraq
Background: Health care personnel especially medical student represent high risk population for hepatitis B virus infection. Objective: This study sought to assess the knowledge of medical students regarding hepatitis B infection and its transmission and prevention. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 medical students in Erbil, the main city of Iraqi Kurdistan region. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. In addition to basic demographic characteristics, the questionnaire included 18 questions about routes and modes of transmission, sequel and prevention of HBV. The students were also asked about their vaccination status. Statistical package for social sciences was used for data analysis. Results: A high proportion of the study participants (41%) had poor knowledge about HBV while 45% had acceptable knowledge and 14% had good knowledge. Good knowledge score was significantly higher among older students and students in clinical year study, p <0.001. Only 45% of them were vaccinated against HBV. The vaccination rate was higher among clinical year study students (68%) in comparison to pre-clinical year students (22%), p <0.001. The vaccination rate was highest among those who had good knowledge (100%), in comparison to those with acceptable knowledge (53.3%) and poor knowledge (17.1%), p <0.001. Conclusions: Knowledge about HBV among the medical students in Hawler Medical University is relatively poor, with important gaps which need to be strengthened. A critical level of public awareness and vaccination coverage, particularly among young students, are essential to decrease burden of the disease in Erbil in the future.
HBV; medical students; knowledge; vaccination; transmission
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Introduction
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the most common viruses in the modern world and
ranked by the WHO as one of the top ten killers. The virus is responsible for approximately
1.5 million deaths worldwide each year, two thirds of which are attributable to primary
hepatic carcinoma following HBV infection (Martin, 2003; Heymann, 2004). About 360
million people are chronically infected with HBV. These chronically infected persons are at
higher risk of death from HBV-related liver cancer or cirrhosis by approximately 25% and
over 4 million new acute clinical cases occur (World Health Organization, 2002; Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, 2007). HBV is preventable with a safe and effective vaccine,
the first vaccine against cancer due to HBV infection (Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention 2003).
HBV is a well-known occupational hazard of health care workers and they are
considered to be at substantial risk for acquiring or transmitting the virus because of the
occupational contact with blood, blood products and other body fluids (Kohn et al., 2003).
The occupational risk for HBV acquisition varies according to the work place in the health
care setting and time of exposure to the agent (Ciorlia and Zanetta, 2005).
The practice of modern medicine has widely contributed to increasing the cases
and spreading the disease in the society. HBV infection is common due to lapse in the
sterilization technique of instruments or due to the improper hospital waste management as
10 to 20% health care waste is regarded hazardous and it may create variety of
health risk (Taneja and Biswal, 2006). Among the health care personnel, HBV is
transmitted by skin prick with infected, contaminated needles and syringes or through
accidental inoculation of minute quantities of blood during surgical and dental
procedures. Knowledge regarding HBV and safety precautions is needed to minimize
the health care settings acquired infections among health personnel. Health care
personnel should have complete knowledge of HBV infections, importance of vaccinations
and practice of simple hygienic measures apart from that of specific protective
measures. Medical students being part of the health care delivery system are exposed to
the same risk as other health care workers when they come in contact with patients
and contaminated instruments. They are the first level of contact between patients and
medical care. They are expected to undertake activities related to patient care with the
beginning of their clinical years. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the
knowledge of medical students regarding hepatitis B infection and its transmission and
prevention.
Subject and methods
This cross sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students at
the College of Medicine of Hawler Medical University from April to May 2012. Hawler
Medical University is (...truncated)