Seroprevalence of HBV and Immunity Status of Health Care Workers in a Referral Community Hospital in Central Iran

3 Abstract: Introduction HBV infection is global health problem, especially among health care workers. This work was designed to evaluate the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus and immunity status amongst health care staff in Shahid Sadoughi Hospital (SSH),Yazd, Iran. Materials and methods This was a cross-sectional research on health care personnel of a general hospital in central Iran. HBsAg positivity and HBsAb titer were assessed by ELISA technique. Results 431 HCWs participated in this study. The mean age of studied cases was 34.1±6.8 years. Most of the cases were nurses and midwives (51.5%) followed by labourers (40.4%) and lab technicians (8.1%). One (0.2%) subject was HBsAg positive. The majority of (89.1% ) of subjects were vaccinated for HBV. On average, 2 dosages of vaccine were received by the subjects. The time interval after the last vaccination was 6 ± 3 years. The majority (86.1%) of subjects were immunized against hepatitis B and the mean titer of Anti-HBS was 290.5± 305.9 mIu/ml. Conclusion The rarity of HBs Ag positivity among our HCWs points to the importance of early and complete vaccination of all health care workers.