Content area
Full Text
Received Apr 11, 2017; Accepted Aug 17, 2017
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
1. Introduction
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a blood-borne disease affecting around 2 billion people worldwide of which about 350 million develop chronic hepatitis infection leading to complications like chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis of liver, and hepatocellular carcinoma [1]. Hepatitis B infection is one of the most important occupational hazards among medical students and healthcare workers (HCWs). HBV is highly contagious which gets transmitted by exposure to infected blood or body fluids and by injuries with contaminated sharp objects like needles. Due to frequent handling of blood and body fluids of patients, HCWs are four times more at risk of contracting hepatitis B infection compared to the general population [2]. The risk of acquiring this infection among the nonvaccinated individuals ranges within 6–30% following single exposure. According to WHO, 5.9% of HCWs are exposed annually to blood-borne HBV infections which correspond to about 66,000 worldwide [3].
Vaccination is the effective means of prevention of HBV infection. Hepatitis B vaccine is available since 1982 which was initially derived from plasma and after 1984 it is available as recombinant vaccine [4]. In 1997, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) has recommended that all HCWs should receive a complete course of hepatitis B vaccination at 0, 1, and 6 months which is administered intramuscularly [5]. A review emphasizes the need to educate the healthcare workers about hepatitis B infection, available vaccines, postvaccine immune status, and postexposure prophylaxis [6].
Testing for evidence of protective immunity to HBsAg vaccination is required as some individuals do not develop sufficient levels of antibodies against HBsAg (anti-HBs). An anti-HBs titre less than 10 mIU/ml is regarded as nonresponse, levels between...