Uptake of HBV Vaccine in Tanzania.pdf
Creators: name: Juma, Mhina
name: Njeri Ndunyu, Dr. Louisa
name: Omondi Aduda, Dr. Dickens
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 420310
subject: Health surveillance

description: Hepatitis B infection is a serious but preventable blood-borne disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). It is the leading cause of liver cancer and cirrhosis, in<b> 2019, hepatitis B resulted in an estimated 820 000 deaths globally, mostly from cirrhosis and liver cancer</b>. The risk of acquiring hepatitis B virus due to a needle-stick injury or an unsafe injection range from 6% to 30%. The potential for transmission of hepatitis B between clients and healthcare workers (HCWs) is a major public health concern. Tanzania’s Ministry of Health reported that in 2017 about 10% only of its physicians knew the correct management of chronic viral hepatitis including HBV. Whereas the national Health guideline requires all HCWs to attain complete HBV immunization, it is not mandatory, and uptake is erratic. <b>The data on uptake of vaccine</b> by healthcare workers as well as their factors associated with vaccine uptake is sporadic. The broad objective of this study was to <b>assess</b> <b>uptake of hepatitis b vaccine and associated factors among</b> HCWs in Mtwara Municipality Health Centers, Tanzania. Specifically, it determines Hepatitis B vaccine <b>uptake</b>; awareness of Hepatitis B on transmission and prevention; identified HCW perception towards uptake and; determine access factors associated with uptake of HB vaccine among HCW’s. Descriptive cross-sectional design was used, and data collected from (N=149) HCWs through self-administered questionnaire. <b>The uptake of HB vaccine</b> was 53.7% which is higher than most of the studies in the country. In addition, vaccination was higher among the clinical cadres relative to non-clinical ones (60.5% versus 26.7%; <i>P&lt;</i>0.001). Significantly more participants trained at Diploma level and above had taken the vaccine (58.9%; <i>P</i>&lt;0.001); Vaccine uptake was comparable between female and male HCWs (<i>P</i>=0.304). Generally, non-clinical HCW had significantly lower awareness with only 36.7% who correctly identified the transmission mode of HBV as well as prevention methods such as use of PEP and vaccines for prevention of HBV. Access, availability of vaccine and high cost of vaccine for HCW were mentioned as barriers to uptake, perception factors such as perceived risk of working in high-risk environment (80.6%) attributed toward completion of HBV vaccine doses. With only about half of healthcare workers having been vaccinated coupled with low awareness of HBV prevention and barriers towards access factors of the vaccine, the group remain considerably susceptible to HBV infection and likely to be infective to patients. <b>There is urgent need to</b><b> </b><b>make the vaccine available and cost free, health policy makers should pay attention to non-clinical HCW vaccine uptake concerns as they share same risk</b>. Understanding further the health prevention behaviors among these healthcare workers is critical for planning health promotion interventions.