Pharmco-Epidemiology and Social Pharmacy

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Browsing Pharmco-Epidemiology and Social Pharmacy by Author "Afework, Gashu"

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    Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Hepatitis B Virus and Its Vaccination Among Health Care Professionals in Selected Public Hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
    (Addis Ababa University, 2015-03) Afework, Gashu; Gedif, Teferi(PhD)
    Occupational exposure occurs frequently among health care workers (HCWs). The most serious occupational health hazard faced by HCWs worldwide is exposure to hepatitis B virus (HBV). Having enough Knowledge and proper attitudes toward this infection is crucial in prevention of occupational hepatitis infection. Therefore this study was conducted to assess knowledge, atti-tude and practice of HBV and its vaccination among health care professionals (HCPs) in selected public hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Qualitative study involved key informants interviews whereas quantitative method was carried out by using structured self-administered questionnaire. This study revealed that HCPs’ knowledge regarding occupational exposure of HBV is found to be good as majority of our par-ticipants correctly answered most of the question pertaining to it. Relatively larger proportion, 103 (44.8%) of the respondents were found to have neutral attitude score. One hundred seventy eight (77.7%) of them had been screened for and received hepatitis B Vaccine, and one hundred sixty (94.1%) of them had received full course of the vaccine. Knowledge score was significantly associated with: education level, type of profession and area of practice; whereas profession type and history of training were the only predictors of vaccination status. In conclusion, majority of the survey participants had moderate to high knowledge score, however, larger percentage of HCPs had negative or neutral attitudes on HBV and its vaccination. In spite of this, vaccination iv status was encouraging. The gaps identified in some areas of knowledge, attitude and practice of HBV call for concern among all stakeholders since HCPs have a high risk of being infected with HBV owing to their high frequency of exposure to infectious fluids coupled with the high infec-tivity of HBV. Key words: Hepatitis B virus, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Occupational exposure