Background: The threat posed by the global HBV epidemic continues to assume alarming proportions in areas of public health and national development. Globally, 2 billion people have been infected with HBV at some point in time in their life time and 360400 million people,representing more than 5% of the worlds population are chronic carriers with anestimated 600,000 deaths each year due to consequences of HBV.
Objective: The objectives of this study were to assess the hepatitis B vaccination awareness, status, reasons for non-compliance, and the risk of exposure to dental students at dental college and hospital.
Material and Methods: A total of 250dental college students in Jodhpur region of Rajasthan were included in the survey. The tool of study was a structured questionnaire specially designed for this study.
Result: The study showed that on average, sampled students had a fair idea about hepatitis B even though there were significant differences between rural and urban adolescents. The study also discovered a significant difference between female and male students regarding their knowledge about types of HBV and different modes of transmission especially the horizontal one.
Conclusion: This study was able to highlight 3 thematic areas and the need for prompt action to be taken. Firstly, the study deduced that majority of dental students of this region were not knowledgeable about the modes of transmission and effects of HBV. Secondly, the issue of stigmatization against already infected persons was very strong among students. Thirdly, vaccination was very low among dental students.
Key words: Hepatitis B, Dental students, Vaccine
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