PREVALANCE OF HBSAG CARRIERS AND ANTIHBSAG IN HEALTH CAREWORKERS OF BOALI-SINA TEACHING HOSPITAL IN QAZVIN

Background: Frequent injections and blood taking for lab analysis in addition to hazards that exist during handling, make medical staff vulnerable to HBV, HCV and HIV infections and put these infectious agents among the most important occupational diseases in medical staff. Objective: AHBsAg carrier prevalence and AntiHBs Ab titre determination among Medical staff. BIdentification of the most common route of transmission and occupational exposure to blood and other body fluid materials. Methods: We assessed the questionnaires of 270 medical staffs of Boali hospital and the results of HBsAg and AntiHBs Ab (qualitative) which has been extracted from their occupational documents. Findings: We found that 1.1% (3 person) had HBsAg (positive cases) and 63.4% had an acceptable level of AntiHBs Ab (Which denotes to efficacy of vaccine). It was revealed that the most common occupational exposure in order of decrease in frequenciy were: needle stick 38.1%, accidental face contact with blood and other body fluids 36.6%, breakage of lab tube in hand 11.1%, accidental serum ingestion 2.2%. Conclusion: The importance of pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis are confirmed by the study results.