ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS HEPATITIS C AMONG CLINICAL MEDICAL STUDENTS OF CHUKWUEMEKA ODIMEGWU OJUKWU UNIVERSITY (COOU), AMAKU, AWKA, ANAMBRA STATE

Presently, there are so many viral diseases flying across the globe, of which hepatitis, a disease of the liver is one of them. This disease is caused by various strains of the hepatitis virus (A, B, C, D and E). Hepatitis C virus is a highly contagious virus that is majorly responsible for chronic liver disease across the globe. HCV infection is a blood-borne infection that is transmitted through contact with infected blood by reuse or insufficient sterilization of needles or sharp objects, transfusion of unscreened blood, sharing injection materials by drug users and perinatal transmission (mother to child). HCV infection prevalence is high in sub-Saharan region, where it is the cause of hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. Medical students, a great population of the health workers, are at most risk of the infection because they are mostly the first direct contact of patients in a healthcare facility. And so, there is need for them to be well aware of the viral infection and its mode of transmission. This study is aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards the infection as this will help curtail transmission of the virus. 147 clinical medical students were sampled for the purpose of this study using a 31-item self-administered questionnaire to extract the necessary information. SPSS 28.0 was used for data entry and analysis, alongside Chi-square test that evaluated the connection between variables, a p-value of less than 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. The result showed that in practice, 20.5% of respondents avoid HCV patients, and 15.6% do not wear gloves when attending to patients. For vaccination, 27.4% of the respondents were not immunized against the virus. The study found a strong correlation between students' ages and their mean Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice scores (p-value=0.014). This study revealed that 46% of respondents believed that people with hepatitis C should be quarantined. This unfavorable attitude may increase stigmatization of people with hepatitis C in society. Sadly, our survey reveals that 63.7% of respondents had no clue about the protocols that should be followed after a needle injury. This is a dangerous finding because each clinical student should be familiar with these protocols in order to reduce the risk of contracting an infection. In conclusion, there is a very important and urgent need to increase sensitization among clinical medical students as a whole lot of them have poor practice and attitude towards the virus. Keyword: Hepatitis C Virus, Clinical Medical Students, Anambra State DOI: 10.7176/JMPB/72-09 Publication date: November 30th 202