A study on prevalence of occupational exposure to HIV among medical interns and their knowledge, attitude and practice of post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV in a teaching hospital

Abstract

Background: Every day thousands of healthcare workers around the world suffer accidental occupational exposures while managing patients. Interns take maximum load of providing medical care in the in-patient and out-patient departments of any medical college and are thus at a great risk of occupational exposure to all kinds of blood borne pathogens including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We aimed to assess the prevalence of occupational exposure to HIV among medical interns and their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding post exposure prophylaxis of HIV. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among all (94) medical Interns who were working in BIMS hospital Belagavi, Karnataka, India during September and October 2015. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaire, which had 18 questions to assess knowledge and 8 questions to assess attitude and 13 questions to assess practice related to occupational exposure and utilization of post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV. Results: Majority of them i.e., 59 (62.7%) had adequate knowledge and 91 (96.80%) had good attitude towards occupational exposure to HIV and PEP for HIV whereas practice was poor. Out of 94 study participants, 16 (17%) had occupational exposure to HIV out of which 5 (5.13%) had taken PEP for HIV but none of them completed the course. Conclusions: There is considerable gap between knowledge and practice against occupational exposure to HIV and inadequate knowledge of post-exposure prophylaxis of HIV emphasizes the need for continuous onsite training of interns with supportive supervision and monitoring of their activities.