Abstract:

Objective: Hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections, are an important health problem that threatens human health. Healthcare workers have an increased risk of being infected with a lot of pathogens. In this study it was aimed to investigate the seroprevalences of HBV, HCV and HIV among healthcare workers in Gaziantep University Medical Faculty Sahinbey Research and Training Hospital. Materials and Methods: One hundred eleven nurses and 88 staff (cleaning staff, emergency medical technician) for a total of 199 healthcare workers in serum samples for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), antibody against hepatitis B surface (anti-HBs), HCV antibody (anti-HCV) and HIV antibody (anti-HIV) markers were measured by ELISA method based on the method of chemiluminescent immunoassay. Participants in the study, a questionnaire containing questions about hepatitis B vaccine was applied. Results: One hundred eleven nurses of mean age of 28.5 ± 4.24 years; mean age of 88 staff personnel was 31.7 ± 5.8 years were included in the study. None of these patients found HCV antibody and HIV antibody. A total of 88 nurses, only one (0.9%) was positive for HBsAg. HbsAg positivity was 0.5% among all healthcare workers included in the study. It was also seen that 98 nurses (88.28%) and 64 staff (72.72%) had anti-HBs positivity. Anti-HBs was found to be negative as 11.71% in nurses and 27.27% in staff personnel. Anti-HBs were negative among 20 (10.05%) healthcare workers, although they indicated that they had been vaccinated against HBV. Conclusion: Healthcare workers who are at high risk of infection for HBV, HCV, HIV should be screened to determine whether they are infected with those viruses and should be vaccinated against HBV who are not immunized. For the prevention of blood-borne diseases, vaccination is an effective and standard infection control measures are necessary.

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