Prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen infection and associated factors among health care workers in Moshi Municipality’s primary health facilities

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus infection remains a major public health problem across the globe. Health care workers are at highest risk than other groups due to frequent contact with body fluids. Despite efforts made by the Tanzanian government since 2014 towards universal immunization of healthcare workers, still, the coverage has not been explored. The study was done to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis B surface Antigen carriage on Hepatitis B infection and associated factors among Health care workers in Moshi Municipality’s Primary Health facilities. An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in 30 primary health care facilities located in Moshi Municipality. The study included 197 Health Care workers who were present during data collection. A pre-tested and standardized questionnaire was used to assess the associated factors on Hepatitis B infection. Proportions and frequencies were used to summarize categorical variable while Measure of central tendency and associated measure of dispersion was computed for variables. The prevalence of Hepatitis B surface Antigen carriage was 3.6%. Factors such as education level, occupation, marital status, vaccination, surgery history, skin contact with body fluids seemed to have contributed to HBV seropositivity but none of them had a significant association. The prevalence of Hepatitis B surface Antigen carriage among healthcare workers in Moshi Municipals is relatively low. This low prevalence may be because primary health facilities are exposed to a smaller number of patients who are not critically ill, also may be a low sample size used. Therefore continued education on Hepatitis B control should be provided.

Keywords: Hepatitis B surface antigen, health care workers, primary health facilities.

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