Abstract:
Hospital personnel are at a great risk of occupational exposure to blood borne pathogens like hepatitis B virus. The risk of occupational exposure to such infection has been the concerns of hospital personnel for years.
This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted to detect the prevalence of hepatitis B Virus among hospital personnel in Sudanese hospitals, Khartoum State. The study was carried outduring the period from January to May 2015.
A total of 90participants working in hospitals were enrolled in this study. Of them 55(66.1%) laboratory technicians, 20(22.2%) nurses and 15(16.6%) physicians.Males were predominant 59 (65.6%) while females were 31 (34.45%). Five ml of blood sample was collected from each participant. The blood was dispensed in a sterile plain blood container. Serum was obtained by centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 5 minutes. The sera were examined for the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg) usingEnzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).The results showed that out of 90blood samplesinvestigated, 16(17.8%) were positive forHBsAg.Of the positive blood samples, 13 (14.4%) were obtained from laboratory technicians and3 (3.3%) from nurses. Among hospital personnel, males were more infected than females, 14 (15.6%) and 2(2.2%) respectively.
The study concluded that the seroprevalence of HBsAg among hospital personnel in Khartoum State was moderate.Laboratory technicians had the highest frequency of infection followed by nurses. Further studies with large number of samples and more advanced technique are required to validate the results of the present study.
