Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HbsAg) in the sera of medical, nursing and microbiology students in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

A total of 331 serum samples collected from medical students, student nurses, microbiology students, and patients presenting with Pyrexia of Unknown Origin (PUO) were tested for the presence of Hepatitis B surface Antigen (HbsAg). While only seven (14.0%) of 50 microbiology students (mean age 24.0 years) tested positive for HbsAg, six (6.7%) of 89 student nurses (mean age 21.6 years) and 13 (13.5%) of 95 medical students (mean age 24.3 years) in the clinical phase of their study were found to have HbsAg in their sera. Also, 10 (10.3%) of 97 patients with PUO (mean age 25.4 years), a group of patients from whom medical personnel arc most likely to often collect blood for laboratory studies, were found to have HbsAg in their sera. No significant difference was found in the prevalence of HbsAg among the different groups examined in this study (P>0.05). The result of the study thus shows that medical and nursing students, unlike what is known for practicing nurses, physicians and surgeons are not at a higher risk of HBV transmission than students of botany and microbiology. Likewise, patients with PUO do not constitute a group that is more likely to transmit HBV to medical personnel than other groups of patients. Vaccination against hepatitis B virus during the early period of medical and nursing training may therefore go a long way to reduce the high prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection previously reported among practicing health personnel in Nigeria.