The Prevalence, Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Federal Police Crime Prevention Staffs towards Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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Date
2019-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Viral hepatitis could be an international public health problem affecting manyindividuals each year, causing disability and death. Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C viruses arecommon causes of hepatitis. Federal police crime prevention staffs are high-risk people forparenteral and sexually transmitted diseases such as hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis Cvirus (HCV). Data regarding prevalence, knowledge, attitude and practice of Federal policecrime prevention staffs towards hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Ethiopiais limited.
Objective: Determining the prevalence, knowledge, attitude and practice of Federal policecrime prevention staffs towards hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in AddisAbaba, Ethiopia.
Methods: Institutional based cross sectional study was conducted among 500 federal policecrime prevention staffs, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from December 2018 to June 2019. Asystematic probability sampling method was employed. A structured questionnaire was used tocollect data on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practice. All sampleswere tested, using a wondfo one step test strip for HBsAg and Ecotest test strip for HCV. Positivesamples were retested by using Murex HBsAg version 3 UK ELISA kits. Data entry and analysis wasdone using SPSS version 20 computer software.
Results: The overall prevalence of HBV among Federal police crime prevention staffs in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia was 4.6% (n=23/500). Of those 4.9% (n=20/407) males and 3.2% (n=3/93) of females werepositive for HBV. The overall prevalence of HCV was 0(0%). From the total participants, 51%(n=255/500) did not heard about hepatitis, 61.4% (n=332/500) and 61% (n=305/500) incorrectlyidentified that HBV and HCV can be transmitted by feco-oral and contaminated water, 97%(n=485/500) were not screened and 99.6% (n=498/500) were not vaccinated. The majority of the studyparticipants 349(69.8%) believe that their job puts them at high risk of acquiring of HBV and HCV, 84.6%(n=423/5) agreed that taking of HBV vaccine is safe.
Conclusion and recommendation: The prevalence of hepatitis B viruses among federal police crimeprevention staffs in Addis Ababa was intermediate and very low hepatitis C. Majority of the participantshad limited knowledge about the transmission and protection of HBV and HCV infection. Large scalestudy is important to make generalization and conducting regular health education is essential.
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Keywords
Hepatitis B and C virus, prevalence, federal police crime prevention, KAP