Özet:

Background: It was aimed to present the knowledge, awareness levels and clinical follow-up data of the hepatitis B infected healthcare workers about hepatitis B virus in our hospital. Materials and Methods: In this study, HBsAg positivity among healthcare workers who were screened by Occupa-tional Health and Safety Unit at Batman Training and Research Hospital between 01.01.2022 and 31.12.2022 were referred to the Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology outpatient clinic. The demographic characteristics of the workers, the current status of hepatitis B, the vaccination status of family members, the history of sharp injuries, and the answers to the questions about the stigma exposure due to hepatitis B were evaluated. The results of ad-vanced laboratory tests related to hepatitis B of the patients were analyzed. Results: HBsAg positivity was detected in 69 (3.2%) of the 2148 workers who were screened. The mean age of workers was 38.55±9.21 years (min-max: 20-60), 52 (75.4%) were male. The majority of those with HBsAg positivity (n=25, 36.2%) were nurses/midwives/health officials, followed by cleaning staff (n=16, 23.2%). The diagnosis of hepatitis B virus infection was first determined during occupational screening (55.2%) and secondly during family screening. It was determined that 44.8% of the workers had a history of sharp injuries, 23.3% had viral serological examinations after injury, and only 13.3% had the serology of the source checked. It was observed that 14 (20.9%) workers diagnosed of hepatitis B did not tell other healthcare workers about their diagnosis. It was found that of those with HBsAg positivity 28 (41.8%) never came to the Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology or Gastroen-terology outpatient controls, 10 (14.9%) rarely came, and 8 (11.6%) received treatment for chronic hepatitis B. Conclusions: In this study, the fact that healthcare workers did not go to outpatient follow-ups at regular intervals for further examination and treatment despite the suspicion of hepatitis B infection with life-threatening chronic com-plications or the known disease suggests that they do not have sufficient awareness of the disease. In addition, the lack of serological control of the source when exposed to sharps injuries is an important problem of preventing infectious diseases. The data of the study reveal that training for workers should be given more importance.