Abstract:

Objectives: To reveal the seroprevalence rates of hepatitis B, C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and the immunization rates against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox and tetanus among trainee nurses, and also to interpret the results in guidance of literature. Materials and Methods: We searched the test results retrospectively of the nursing students who admitted to our hospital for training between September and December 2018. Literature review was made by scanning the publications in the last 15 years (after 2003) in PubMed, Turk Medline and Google Scholar databases using the relevant keywords. Results: A total of 105 trainee nurses were included in the study. According to our results, no hepatitis B surface antigen positive cases were detected, and anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) was positive in one case (0.9%) with negative HCV-RNA. Anti-HIV positivity was detected for the first time in a foreign trainee nurse (0.9%). The antibody positivity rates for hepatitis-A, hepatitis-B, measles, rubella, mumps, varicella and tetanus were 26.4%, 81.8%, 70.6%, 92.7%, 86.5%, 95.8, 100%, respectively. Anti-HBs antibody levels were lower than 10 mIU/mL in 17 (17.3%) cases and between 11 and 50 mIU/mL in 17 (17.3%) cases. There were no cases with a tetanus antibody not detected, the number of cases with tetanus antibody levels between 0.01-0.5 IU/mL, 0.5-1 IU/mL, 1-5 IU/mL and >5 IU/mL were 4 (9.8%), 3 (7.3%), 25 (61%) and 9 (21.9%), respectively. Conclusion: Hepatitis-B and C seropositivity was very low; HIV positivity was detected for the first time in the screening of medical staff in Turkey. Hepatitis-A seropositivity rates were low and showed a significant decrease compared to years. Low immunization rates reveal the necessity of screening the immunity of the health personnel against measles. Our results and the results of the similar studies support the necessity and the cost-effectiveness of vaccination and screening programs of health care professionals.

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