Introduction. Seafarers face many occupational, health and psychosocial problems on a daily basis. Maritime as a profession has a special combination of conditions that have a strong impact on the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) and make prevention programs difficult to succeed.Objective. To study the attitudes towards sharing and attitudes towards HIV-positive people among seafarers in the workplace.Material and methods. 100 persons practicing the maritime profession were surveyed using an anonymous questionnaire, approved by the Commission on Scientific Ethics at the Medical University — Varna.The results were statistically processed with SPSS v. 20.0, using variation, comparison and correlation analyzes.Results and discussion. Most of the respondents have sufficient experience in their profession, have higher education and have an equal distribution in deck and machine command (41% each), 18% are from the executive staff. All respondents are adamant that they would share the result of the HIV test with their family or partner, with only 24.0% stating that they would share the positive result with colleagues and 26.0% with the employer. We found a significant difference (c2 39.47; p<0.001) and a moderate dependence (r=0.34; p=0.001) on the behavior of respondents regarding the sharing of the positive result of the HIV test with members of their professional environment (colleagues and managers).The sailors are afraid to work with HIV-seropositive colleagues because their knowledge about the prevalence, risk factors and perceptions about the transmission and prevention of HIV infection have a lot of gaps.Conclusion. Despite training from unions, medical organizations and governments, the dreaded myths about HIV/AIDS persist. The degree of ignorance of the reality around HIV/AIDS is directly proportional to the stigmatization of the problem.
Introduction: Rabies is a viral zoonosis still posing a significant threat to public health worldwide, especially in developing countries. The disease can be controlled by animal vaccination and appropriate post-exposure prophylaxis in humans administered in the earliest possible time. Aim: To study and analyze animal-related injuries and post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies. Materials and methods: Between 2014 and 2018, a retrospective epidemiological study was conducted in Varna region, which in-cluded 1462 persons who suffered injuries from animals. The study was based on the official data in the annual analysis of the Regional Health Inspectorate (RHI) in Varna. The information was summarized, analyzed, and graphically illustrated. The results were statisti-cally analysed using SPSS v. 20 employing variational and comparative (χ2) analyses. The statistical significance level was set at p <0.05. Results: Of 1462 registered post-injury care seekers, 642 (42.7%) had to be given post-exposure prophylaxis on an emergency basis. The latter were mainly city residents (91.8%). Immunization against rabies was given in the first two days after exposure in 477 (76.4%) subjects. The average number of doses per immunized person was 3.63. The injuries were mainly from stray dogs (58.14%), followed by domestic (37.41%) and wild (4.45%) animals. According to the anatomical site of injury, limb injuries predominated in 88.65% (lower limbs 45% and upper limbs 43.64%). Most of the injuries were light (71.54%), followed by moderate (18.91%) and severe injuries (9.61%). Conclusions: Rabies prevention can be much more facilitated by the combined efforts of doctors, veterinarians, animal welfare orga-nizations and, last but not least, responsible population behavior. Post-exposure prophylaxis is an integral part of successfully curbing rabies programs but effective disease control can be achieved only through health education and vaccination of animals.
Introduction. The epidemic process of HIV/АIDS is a complex mix of diverse epidemics in and between different countries and regions around the world and is a leading public health crisis of our time.Aim. The purpose of this study is to analyze the socio-demographic profile of HIV-positive people in Varna. after 2015.Materials and methods. This study included a total of 100 HIV-positive people. All statistical analyzes are performed using SPSS v. 20.0 software. Analysis of variancecomparative analysis (r2), correlation analysis (Student’s coefficient, r) and risk analysis (RR) were used. Level of significance was taken to be 0.05 and 95% confidence interval were calculated.Results. The results of the epidemiological analysis show that the Varna region is characterized by a low endemic risk of HIV / AIDS. The majority of PLHIV are men (72.0%), mainly among men who have sex with men (72.0%), persons aged 20–29 (56.00%) with secondary education (58.0%), вulgarian ethnicity (66.0%) and those living in the city (82.0%) predominate. About 1⁄3 (32.0%) of the subjects had sexually transmitted infections, with syphilis rankng first (43.80%) followed by hepatitis C (25.0%).Conclusion. The city of Varna is defined as a successful model in the field of HIV/АIDS prevention, based on risk groups characteristics, with excellent cooperation between the interested institutions, and a good strategic approach in the planning and development of local HIV/AIDS prevention policies.
The aim of this article is to explore the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV in the process of their healthcare. Materials and Methods: Anonymous poll examined 330 individuals-copper workers, students and HIV seropositive. The results were statistically processed with SPSS v. 20.0, using descriptive, variational and comparative analysis. Results: The results of the analysis show that slightly over half of the surveyed medical specialists are not afraid to provide care to an HIV positive patient (about 60%), with a significant part supporting the periodic HIV/AIDS tests of medical staff. On the other hand, 74% of HIV seropositive respondents report that they report their HIV status while visiting a doctor, and only 36.00% say their physician is aware of the fact that they are HIV positive. The main reason for hiding information about the HIV status is the fear of stigma and discrimination. In the group of medical students surveyed, only 44% of the respondents are ready to provide care to an HIV seropositive patients. Conclusion: Although healthcare workers and medical students in training are well aware of the mechanisms of transmission of HIV infection, there is still fear of working with HIV seropositive patients. This also determines the choice of these patients to keep their HIV status secret when visiting a medical professional.
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