SCREENING FOR HEPATITIS B SURFACE ANTIGEN (HBsAg) AMONG HEALTH CARE WORKERS (HCW) IN AN URBAN COMMUNITY SOUTH –SOUTH NIGERIA

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major public health problem worldwide, while infection is highest in the developing world particularly Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Healthcare workers (HCW) are at extra risk of acquiring blood-borne viral infections, particularly hepatitis B (HBV), this study is therefore aimed at estimating prevalence of Hepatitis B virus infection and its associated risk factors among health care workers in Uyo Metropolis. A total of 188 Health personnel, which constitutes Nurses, Doctors, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Technicians/Assistants, Pharmacists And Ward Assistance, were screened for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) using ELISA HBsAg kits (Clinotech diagnostic 3rd generation). A wellstructured questionnaire was used to determine demographic and other relevant data. Out of the one hundred and Eighty-eight (188) respondents screened. Thirty two (32) representing 17.0% were found to be seropositive. Distribution of Hepatitis B Infection based on age showed a higher prevalence of (4.8%) among subjects aged 46-50years; X2Values = 0.708; P>0.05. Considering gender, female subjects recorded (17.3%) prevalence compared to (16.7%) recorded by the Male subjects;X2 Values= 0.538, df = 1, p>0.05.Considering the profession of the subjects screened, the highest prevalence of 6.9% was found among nurses while the least prevalence of 0.53% was recorded among pharmacists. From the result obtained, it is obvious that the prevalence of HBV tends to be high among personnel with high proximity to blood and body fluids, it is therefore important that health personnel be properly informed about their risk to HBV infection, so as to adopt measures to avoid infection, while routine vaccination of health workers against HBV is highly recommended. Keywords: Health Care Workers (HCW), (HBsAg), Screenin