Hepatitis B Virus Antibody Levels in High-Risk Health Care Workers

Abstract

Context: Hepatitis B viral infection, specially in children, is an unsolved global health issue. National and international vaccination programs, as the main means to prevent this infection, have been operating for years. This meta-analysis study was launched to investigate the vaccination efficacy in under five-year-old children in Iran. Evidence Acquisition: In this research, all national databases including, SID, Magiran, Iran medex, Iran doc, and Medlib, as well as international databases, including PubMed, Medline, and ISI were searched for published articles associated with evaluation of seroconversion rates after hepatitis-B vaccination in Iranian children. The search was performed in the Persian and/or English language and in under five-year-old children in Iran. The variance of each study was calculated using the binomial distribution formula. The results of studies were combined using random-effects meta-analysis model. Data were analyzed using STATA version 12. Results: In the present research, 11 studies, performed from 2000 to 2017, were investigated. The number of samples in these 11 studies were 3063 children (1592 males and 1471 females). In the studies, the efficacy range of the hepatitis-B vaccine in under fiveyear-old children in Iran was 89% (95% CI: 86% -93%) with high heterogeneity (P value for heterogeneity was 0.001, I 2 = 92.9). Range of efficacy for males and females was 85% (95% CI: 78 to 91) and 88% (95% CI: 83 to 93), respectively. Conclusions: The hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination program in Iran seems to be highly effective although some questions, such as the effect of gender on responsiveness to vaccine and heterogeneity of different data, remain unclear.

Effectiveness of Patient Rights Education Program on Knowledge among Nurses in a Selected Hospital at Mangalore

“…7 Patient rights are practical measures for patient satisfaction in health care services. 8 Patient rights are an integrated component of human rights, and hence, nurses should adhere to them. Comprehensive knowledge and suitable conditions should be provided for the nurses to reduce the practice of violating patient rights.…”

The Immune Response of Vaccination Against Hepatitis B virus in Iranian Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy

“…In 6% to 10% of patients, acute hepatitis B leads to chronicity and 15% to 25% of them die from chronic liver diseases. [ 1 2 3 ] The prevalence of chronic carriers in the patients with defective immune system is higher than the general population. [ 2 ] As is hard to treat and control the chronic state, control of disease depends on prevention.…”

comments on Behavior of Healthcare Workers After Injuries From Sharp Instruments

“…Healthcare workers (HWCs) are at high risk of infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmitted through blood and infected fluids; the infected staff can transfer these viruses to uninfected patients while providing services (2). Adib-Hajbaghery et al (1) reported that around 90% of the enrolled cases had received hepatitis B vaccination.…”

“…According to the standard precautions for infection control, all HWCs susceptible to the infection should be identified and immunized to reduce the morbidity rate; thus the evaluation of anti-HBs antibody level is mandatory. HWCs, particularly those working in the emergency departments, operating rooms and hemodialysis centers are considered as high-risk groups (2). In addition to HBV infection, the HWCs are occupationally at the risk of HCV infection (3).…”

“…Finally, I would like to emphasize on the necessity to educate HWCs especially the operating room nurses and midwives who are at the high risk of needle-stick, and sharps injuries. More education about the prevention of repeated injuries is critical for this high-risk group (2, 4). There is a need for further research to investigate why many HWCs do not take prophylactic and essential actions after needle stick injury or mucosal exposure to body fluids of infected patients, and why the health systems do not appreciate the importance of this issue in HWCs (4).…”