Hepatitis B vaccination coverage in medical students at a medical college of Mirpurkhas

Objectives: to estimate the coverage of hepatitis b vaccine in medical students enrolled in a private medical college. methods: this cross sectional study was done at muhammad medical college mirpurkhas. it has a total of 375 medical students from first year to final year. all students were interviewed using a prestructured urdu translated questionnaire to find out the vaccination status of these students and the reasons for not getting vaccinated. results: a total of 395 medical students were approached to participate in the study but only 375 (95%) students (m=214, f=159) gave response. out of the total 375 students, 214 (57%) were vaccinated against hepatitis b. amongst this group 188 (87.8%) had completed their vaccination schedule of 03 doses and 26 (13%) were partially vaccinated. vaccination uptake was higher (55.6%) in males as compared to females (44.3%). reasons of not vaccination were lack of motivation ( 29.2%), no need felt (24.8%), (3) never thought of vaccination (21.7%), fear of injection (10.5%) and lack of belief in vaccination (8.07%). only 130 (60.7%) students were screened before taking the vaccine. the self reported seropositivity of hepatitis b surface antigen in medical students was 3.7%. conclusions: despite the availability and accessability of a cost effective hepatitis b vaccine since mid 80's, the vaccination coverage among medical students is low. health education needs to be improved in all medical students especially in the private sector.