Survey on HBV Immunisation Status among the Dental Practitioners

Introduction: There are more than 2 billion people worldwide who have evident recent or past HBV infection and chronic cases. Hepatitis B, C and D are transmitted by parental contact with infected body fluids including blood, semen, saliva , sweat and tears , invasive medical procedures using equipment which are contaminated with the virus , vertical transmission. Hepatitis B vaccine is a vaccine that prevents hepatitis B. The first dose is recommended within 24 hours of birth with either two or three more doses given after that. This includes those with immunisation such as from AIDS/HIV and those born premature. It is also recommended that health-care workers be vaccinated. In healthy people routine immunisation results in more than 96% of the people being protected.

Aim: The aim of this study is to know the immunisation status and knowledge and awareness among dental practitioners.

Materials and Methods: A survey was designed to analyse the result. The questionnaire was prepared in Google Forms (online survey link) and was distributed to 100 dental practitioners. The responses were then collected and statistically analysed using SPSS software.

Results and Discussion: After discussing the results of the present study, it was seen that many were aware of hepatitis B vaccine. Limitations of this are that the population is small. Limitations seen in this study can be included in future research for better spread of awareness among the general public.

Conclusion: From the study we can conclude that the majority of the dental practitioners are aware of hepatitis B vaccine and are aware of their vaccination status of hepatitis B.