Govt to immunise healthcare workers against Hepatitis B

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : On the directions of Union Health Minister J P Nadda, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken a decision to vaccinate all healthcare workers who are at an increased risk of acquiring Hepatitis-B infection such as those involved in conducting deliveries, giving injections and exposed to blood or blood products.Hepatitis B vaccination is recommended for all healthcare workers with occupational exposure, who have not received a complete primary series.

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver and can cause both acute and chronic disease. The virus is highly contagious and is transmitted through contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person. It is transmitted when blood, semen or another body fluid from a person infected with the Hepatitis B virus, enters the body of someone who is not infected. This can happen through sexual contact; sharing needles/syringes, needle injuries; or other invasive equipment; or from mother to baby at birth. There is no specific treatment for acute Hepatitis B disease. Clinical management is based on supportive therapy and relief of symptoms, according to a  PIB release.

HBV infection is a well-recognized occupational risk for health-care workers (including trainees), and others (e.g. housekeeping staff, emergency workers) exposed to infected blood and body fluids or blood-contaminated environments. Because of their contact with patients or infective material, healthcare workers are at considerably greater risk of HBV infection than the general population.

Health-care workers are often unaware of all exposures to potentially infectious blood and body fluids, or contaminated environments. Even when exposures are recognised, health-care workers often do not seek post-exposure prophylactic management.

In 2015 the global prevalence of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection in the general population was estimated at 3.5% with about 257 million persons living with chronic HBV infection. It is a major global health problem and the most serious type of viral hepatitis. It is estimated that about 7,80,000 people die each year due to consequences of Hepatitis B, such as liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Prevalence of Hepatitis B among general population in India ranges from 2 to 8%, which places India in an intermediate HBV endemicity zone, and India with 50 million cases is also the second largest global pool of chronic HBV infections. Among healthcare workers seroprevalence is two to four times higher than that of the general population. Hepatitis B is preventable with currently available safe and effective vaccines.

Reports from India indicate that only 16-60% of healthcare workers have received complete HBV immunisation. Paramedics have a higher risk of HBV transmission and receive HBV vaccination less often than doctors. Vaccination is effective in protecting 90- 95 %.