Pattern of Hepatitis A Virus Epidemiology in Nursing Students and Adherence to Preventive Measures at Two Training Wards of a University Hospital

Autor: Maria Francesca Piazza, Maura Galletta, Rosa Cristina Coppola, Igor Portoghese, Roberta Pilia, Gabriele Finco, Laura Spada, Alberto Lai, Giuseppina Masia, Paolo Mura, Lucia Mulas, Marcello Campagna, Angelo Restivo, Noemi Maria Mereu
Rok vydání: 2016
Předmět:
Zdroj: Hepatitis Monthly
ISSN: 1735-3408
1735-143X
DOI: 10.5812/hepatmon.34219
Popis: Background: Nursing students can be exposed to patients with hepatitis A virus (HAV) and can represent a vehicle of transmission both for health personnel, patients and relatives. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the risk of HAV infection in nursing students during their internship. Patients and Methods: A seroprevalence survey on HAV infection was performed on nursing students at the Cagliari university- hospital, together with the assessment of the compliance to preventive measures to decrease the risk of infection during their intern- ship. Blood specimens were obtained from 253 students. All serum samples were tested for anti-HAV antibodies (IgG) by the enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Compliance to preventive measures was recorded by trained personnel. Results: Overall HAV seropositivity in nursing students (mean age 24, range 17 - 45 years) was 3%. Compliance to preventive measures was not uniform (6% - 76%) and extremely low in some specific measures targeted to decrease the oral-fecal transmission. Conclusions: The high proportion of susceptible nursing students can contribute to an increase in the risk of nosocomial transmis- sion, especially when specific preventive measures are not completely applied. Nursing education packages, before starting medical internship, should be implemented in order to increase their compliance to preventive measures, especially in wards at higher risk. Vaccination should be considered in wards at higher risk.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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