Awareness and practice of complete hepatitis B vaccination and anti-HBs testing in vaccinated health care workers

Background: hepatitis b is a serious and common infectious disease affecting millions of people worldwide. health care workers (hcw) are at an increased risk of occupational exposure to hbv and the incidence is 2-4 times higher than in the general population. despite potential risks,awareness and vaccine compliance is poor among the hcws. aim: to assess the awareness of complete hepatitis b vaccination,anti-hbs testing & protective titres and determine the anti hbs titres amongst vaccinated hcws. material & methods: a total of 500 health care workers of both sexes in the age group from 20- 60 years vaccinated against hepatitis b were tested for anti-hbs titres by quantitative elisa. results: the rate of complete immunization was 81.4% in doctors,63.3% in nursing staff and 90% in the technical staff. amongst the 500 participants,70.8% had received all the doses and 29.2% incomplete doses of the vaccine. titres of ≥ 10 miu/ml were demonstrated in 84.4% of hcws who received all the doses and in 65.7% those who defaulted. conclusions: the results of the study indicate lack of awareness about complete hb vaccination and the importance of post vaccination testing in hcws. © journal of krishna institute of medical sciences university.