Prevalence and vaccination coverage of Hepatitis B among healthcare workers in Cameroon: A national seroprevalence survey

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is hyperendemic in Cameroon, and healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk of infection. We aimed to assess prevalence, risk factors and vaccine coverage of HBV infection among HCWs in Cameroon. We conducted a cross‐sectional study in 16 hospitals across all regions of Cameroon. HCWs were tested for HBV using rapid diagnostic tests (RDT). We collected data on socio‐demographics and HBV vaccination status. We estimated prevalence of HBV and used Poisson regression models with robust standard errors to model the prevalence ratios of HBV positivity between covariates. We enrolled 1824 of 1836 eligible HCWs (97.5%). The mean age was 34 (SD: 10) years, 65.3% (n = 1787) were women, and 11.4% (n = 1747) had three or more doses of the HBV vaccine. Overall, we found a HBV prevalence of 8.7% (95% CI: 5.2%‐14.3%). Patient transporters had the highest crude prevalence (14.3%; 95%CI: 5.4%‐32.9%), whereas medical doctors had the lowest (3.2%; 95%CI: 0.8%‐12.1%). The Far North Region had the highest prevalence of HBV (24.0%; 95%CI: 18.3%‐30.8%). HBV prevalence decreased with increasing doses of the HBV vaccine (10.3% for no doses vs 3.5% for three or more doses; P < 0.001). In conclusion, approximately 1 in 12 HCWs in Cameroon have evidence of HBV infection, yet fewer than 1 in 6 have been fully vaccinated. Our results illustrate the urgent need to scale up systematic HBV screening and targeted vaccination of HCWs in the region.

Knowledge, attitude and prevalence of hepatitis B virus among healthcare workers: a cross-sectional, hospital-based study in Bamenda Health District, NWR, Cameroon

“…This study revealed a relatively high burden of current HBV infection (10.6%) among HCWs in Cameroon. The high prevalence of HBV in this study population is similar to the HBV prevalence obtained in a similar study carried out in Yaoundé,24 but higher than the 8.7% obtained in a national survey among HCWs 30. The difference in the prevalence of HBV could be due to the different diagnostic techniques used.…”

Full-dose hepatitis B virus vaccination coverage and associated factors among health care workers in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…This might be due to differences in socioeconomic status and standards of health care services. Our estimate is also lower than other African countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, and Libya [ 6 ], but higher than the national prevalence of 11.4% of Cameron [ 41 ]. This might be because the cost and unavailability of vaccination might be the reason for the low coverage [ 6 , 17 ].…”

Hepatitis B virus infection and associated risk factors among medical students in eastern Ethiopia

“…On the other hand, 48.4% of the study participants have received at least one dose of HBV vaccine. This finding is higher than a study done in Cameroon (11.4%) [ 30 ] but lower than Northern Tanzania (67.4%) [ 31 ], Kenya (80%) [ 32 ], Malaysia (95.91%) [ 33 ] and Pakistan (73.42%) [ 34 ]. This difference could be due to the unavailability of the HBV vaccine for adults above 18 years in Ethiopia [ 35 ].…”