Hepatitis B Vaccination Coverage, HBS-Ab level and its related factors among dentistry and medical students

Background:Hepatitis B vaccination in Iran has been routinely performed for infants since 1993. This vaccination has also been suggested for individuals at risk .Recently, with the arrival of the children born in 1993 and later to the age of entry to the university, assuming they were vaccinated against hepatitis B at birth, the issue of tracking the immunity of these students has been obscured or neglected. In addition, now, the entry of some individuals born before 1993 to the university who have not been immunized against this disease in childhood, has made this issue more complicated. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study which was performed through providing a checklist and serologic tests. After obtaining written consent from students, the information of 300 students were entered into the SPSS software version 16.0 and analyzed using descriptive statistics, and Kruskal-wallis H and Mann-Whitney U tests, in addition, the significance level was considered as 0.05. Results: Out of 300 students, 55%, 28.7%, and 16.3% had weak, medium, and good HBS-Ab titer with rates of less than 10, 10 to 100, and more than 100, respectively, moreover, the mean HBS-Ab titer was significantly different between different immune groups (Weak, Medium, and Good) (P=0.000).Vaccination coverage was at a very low level so that only 6.3% of the subjects completed the hepatitis B vaccination in the past 1 to 5 years (when entering university). the mean of the HBS-Ab titer was significantly correlated with the time elapsed since the last vaccination (P < 0.05). Conclusions: due to the low level of vaccination coverage among the students of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (6.3%) in comparison with other universities, it is better to design a program that will allow all students enrolled in such fields to receive hepatitis B vaccination when entering the university.

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M.D. , General Physician , Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center , Hormozgan Health Institute , Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences , Bandar Abbas , Iran.