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

Abstract

BackgroundNursing 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.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to assess the risk of HAV infection in nursing students during their internship.Patients and MethodsA 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 internship. 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.ResultsOverall 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.ConclusionsThe high proportion of susceptible nursing students can contribute to an increase in the risk of nosocomial transmission, 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.

Hepatitis A, B and C seropositivity among first-year healthcare students in western Turkey: a seroprevalence study

“…In this study, using a univariate analysis (chi-square test), it was determined that anti-HAV seropositivity was significantly higher among male students than among female students. This result was not in agreement with the observations reported in other studies [12,14,16,19]. We have no explanation for this finding.…”

“…In Korea, anti-HAV seropositivity was reported as 11.4% among 1st-to 3rd-year medical school students [13], and in medical students in Iran, the prevalence of anti-HAV seropositivity was 70% in one study [14] and 34% in another study [15]. In another study from Italy, 3.16% of nursing students were immune to the HAV [16]. These differences between studies may be attributed to the health behaviors of participants, hygiene, sanitary conditions, and socioeconomic levels of the country.…”

Influence of the Internet of Things management system on hand hygiene compliance in an emergency intensive care unit

“…Especially in the emergency intensive care unit (EICU), patients usually tend to be older with more comorbidities and lower immunity, and there are more multidrug-resistant pathogens, more invasive diagnosis and treatment operations, and more antibiotic applications, all of which lead to the higher incidence of hospital infection [4]. Although there is sufficient evidence that compliance with hand hygiene can reduce the incidence of nosocomial infections and cross-infection of drug-resistant bacteria, hand hygiene habits in developed and developing countries have been shown to be inadequate [5]. Hand hygiene definitely needs more attention.…”

An assessment of hand hygiene perception and practices among undergraduate nursing students in Lagos State: A pilot study

“…Nonetheless, in spite of CDC guidelines that recognize HH as the most significant process in the prevention of nosocomial infection,[ 9 ] an unacceptable compliance rate is still observed among health-care professionals (HCPs). [ 10 ] Nigeria is one of the countries with a high burden of HCAIs,[ 11 12 ] yet the HH campaign is not commonly promoted in many health-care facilities in the country. Some researchers have shown that adherence of HCPs to guidelines for HH is very low, generally <50%.…”