Anti-HBS antibody status of healthcare workers in Pushpagiri Institute of Medical sciences and Research Centre

Background: Health care workers (HCW) are at risk of infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV).HCWs can occupationally become infected with HBV through needle prick or exposure to HBV infected blood and other body fluids.Currently, there are more than 240 million people infected and approximately 600,000 people die every year due to Hepatitis B virus (HBV).Though vaccination is considered to be the best solution to this problem, it is fraught with the issue of non-responders.Objectives: To evaluate anti-HBs antibody titre in previously vaccinated clinicians, laboratory personnel and nursing staff of Pushpagiri Medical College Hospital, Tiruvalla.Materials and Methods:90 participants who had a history of previous HBV vaccination and no known past history of Hepatitis B infection were included in the present study.Participant's data collected included vaccination date, number of doses of vaccine, job description, and age at the time of study.Hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs) titres were measured by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) (DiaSorin, Saluggia, Italy) to investigate the immune response against the vaccine.Results: 90 Samples were taken from different age groups ranging from seventeen to sixty two years.Among the population studied the Hepatitis B vaccine induced immune response in HCWs were good (93.34%) with some of the participants in our study having an anti-HBs level >100 IU/ml even 15 years after the last dose of HBV vaccination.6.6% were non-responders.Conclusions: Anti-HBs levels should be tested in all HCW following HBsAg vaccination so that necessary post-exposure precautions can be taken for the non-responders.