Hepatitis B Vaccination Status among Nursing Students in Karachi, Pakistan

Background: Hepatitis B infection is a fatal occupational hazard for health care professionals especially for student nurses. Theycan be easily protected from hepatitis B infection by their HBV vaccination.Objective: To determine the frequency of HBV Vaccination among student nurses in Karachi Pakistan.Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in ten nursing institutes (five public and five private) among 529nursing students.Results: Out of 529 nursing students, only 270(50.6%) were vaccinated. Among 270 respondents, 58.8% were completelyvaccinated and68% were vaccinated before clinical exposure. The most common reasons for not being vaccinated included lack ofknowledge about HBV vaccine (31.88%), unavailability of free of cost vaccine (22 %), have no time for vaccination (11.96%), afraidof vaccine side effects/complications (10.14%), afraid of injection (9.42%), have prior immunity (5.43%), not effective vaccine(5.07%) and high vaccine cost (3.99%).Conclusion: There is alarmingly low vaccination coverage of hepatitis B among nursing students of Karachi, leading to a greatprofessional risk of hepatitis B infection. Consequently, policy should be implemented for making hepatitis B vaccination mandatoryfor admission in nursing institutes to prevent nursing students from acquiring this fatal disease.Keywords: Hepatitis B vaccine; Hepatitis B virus; Nursing students; Vaccination; Pakistan.