Abstract

Study on hepatitis B vaccination coverage among workforce of a tertiary care hospital in North India

Hepatitis B is one of the most serious of the 20 blood borne pathogens which are the major threat to health care workers (HCWs). While a vaccine for hepatitis B exists, its utilization among HCWs and factors surrounding its utilization in many developing countries are unknown. This study was carried out to find hepatitis B vaccination coverage among work force of a tertiary care institute and various factors affecting its acceptance among health care workers. Cross-sectional study was carried for a period of six months at Sher-i-Kashmir institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura. All the employees who consented to participate were taken up for this study. A selfadministered, pre-structured questionnaire were used to collect data from all the participants. Of the 2763 employees studied, 71.4% were males and 28.6% were females with mean age of 40.46 years. 25.76% employees were completely vaccinated and 51.24% were unvaccinated. Among high risk group only 32.7% of employees were completely vaccinated. Also among fully vaccinated employees, no one had got their post vaccination titers done. Important reasons for not taking the vaccine were no knowledge regarding the vaccine (31.80 %), low level of perceived susceptibility for getting the infection (27.0%) and unwillingness to spend money or cost of the vaccine (26.24%). More awareness and education among HCW’s is warranted to clear misconceptions and promote more acceptance of vaccine.

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