Anti Hbs Titre Level and Awareness and Safety against Hepatitis B Virus among Dental Students in a Dental College in Kolkata - A Cross Sectional Study

Objective: It is known that health care specialist and dental surgeons are an increased risk of hepatitis B virus infection because of their direct communication with the infected patients, vaccination plays a pivotal role in arresting the transmission of HBV infection. So, to know the immune status against HBV transmission among the dental students were evaluated through Anti -Hbs titre values. Methods: 250 candidates were enrolled in the study out of which 113 were reported to receive full or booster dose of Hepatitis B vaccination in their recent past. So a total of 117 candidates who were under clinical training in dental college, were tested for anti -HBs titre. Depending on their result the subjects with titre level less than 10 m IU/ml are considered as low and are susceptibility to get infected, were given full course of dose of hepatitis vaccination. Another group with titre level more than 10 m IU/ml are considered as high titre level and are thus immune to the disease, but since the subjects are unsure about their vaccination past records and are more prone to infection because of their work area, so they were preferred to give only a booster dose. Results: Out of 117 subjects 58.9% and 41.1 % were given full dose and booster dose respectively from their titre values. It has been seen that 66.5% among males and 53.5% among females were given full dose vaccination. Similarly, 33.5% among males and 46.5% among females were given booster dose respectively. Awareness about Hepatitis B vaccination was around 53.2 % who reported to have an idea about the infectious nature of the virus and were vaccinated. Another 46.8% were not vaccinated indicating the need of awareness programs regarding the virus and they were unaware about the vaccination status even the family member have no idea about the virus. Conclusion:Females are either immune to the disease or are more frequent to exposure to the infected blood through various injuries in needle prick injuries than males.