Hepatitis B vaccine coverage among health professionals in the Queluz Health Center
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32385/rpmgf.v25i6.10687Keywords:
Vaccination, Hepatitis B, Health Care ProfessionalsAbstract
Introduction: Hepatitis B is an important worldwide cause of morbidity and mortality, which transmission is related to occupational exposure.Vaccination against hepatitis B induces a high protection in vaccinated individuals, and it is therefore found included in the National Vaccination Plan and contemplated for risk groups, namely for health care professionals. Objective: To establish the prevalence of the hepatitis B vaccination status in health care professionals at the Queluz Health Center. Design: Descriptive, cross sectional study, observational Setting: Queluz Health Center Population: Health care professionals at risk. Method: The data were obtained by computerized registered information from SINUS or by directly confirming each individual health bulletin and in the absence of these, by a questionnaire to the professionals. The following variables were considered: sex, age, profession, hepatitis B vaccination status. Results: The population included 132 individuals, having obtained results for 104 of those individuals. Of these, 81,7% had completed vaccination, 5,8% incomplete and 12,5% had no vaccination whatsoever. In relation to the professional groups, 92,1% of nurses had complete vaccination, 79,7% of physicians and 42,9% of nursing assistants. The nursing assistants were the group with the highest absence of vaccination - 28,6%, followed by the physicians - 16,9% and the nurses - 2,6%. Conclusion: It would be important to evaluate if these data really indicate low vaccination rates against Hepatitis B in health care professionals, by developing new studies including other health care professionals belonging to different Health Centers. Given the clear indication for the vaccination of these professionals, the possibility of working with non-vaccinated individuals can be a way of spreading information in a perceivable way, emphasizing the benefits obtained with primary prevention. A future study to evaluate the motives that lead to non-vaccination can be considered.Downloads
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