DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1185567/v1
BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B infection is caused by the hepatitis B virus which attacks the liver and can cause both acute and chronic disease and puts people at high risk of death from cirrhosis and liver cancer. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a highly contagious virus which is 50-100 times more infectious than HIV but have similar mode of transmission. Hepatitis B is the most common serious liver infection in the world. Hepatitis B infection is one of the major public health problems and is the tenth leading cause of death.
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice towards hepatitis B prevention among students in Debre Tabor Health Science College.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 422 health science students in Debre tabor, town September to october,2021. The study participants were selected using a simple random sampling technique after proportionally allocating the sample size from the total number of students, and finally study subjects was selected by systematic random sampling based on their list studying at Debre tabor health science college. The data were collected by trained data collectors using a structured self-questionnaire. The collected data were checked, coded and entered to SPSS version 20, and for data cleaning and analysis.
RESULT: The response rate was 84.1% (n = 355). A total of 262(73.8%) of the students knew about the transmission of HBV infection. Majority of the students (73.5%) agreed for vaccination against HBV infection. About 10.4%, 16.3%, 5.6%, 15.5%, 10.4%, 5.1%, and 5.07% of were responds know wearing of gloves, wearing of goggles, adequate disposal of sharp materials, avoid patients diagnosed with hepatitis B, multivitamin/Blood Tonic, use antibiotics after contact, and other protective measures taken to protect against hepatitis B infection students knew about the preventive measures against HBV infection.
CONCLUSION: The overall awareness regarding HBV disease was found to be deficient among the health science students.