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Screening and linkage to care for medical students with hepatitis B virus infection in Sierra Leone
PURPOSE: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is considered a major public health concern for Sierra Leone. Although medical students are at increased occupational risk for HBV infection, little is known about the burden of HBV infection amongst medical students in Sierra Leone. METHODS: As part of a s...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7416683/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32802989 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04673 |
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author | Kachimanga, Chiyembekezo Bangura, Musa Nyama, Emmanuel Mhango, Michael Reed, Vicky Rodriguez, Marta Patiño Lado, Marta |
author_facet | Kachimanga, Chiyembekezo Bangura, Musa Nyama, Emmanuel Mhango, Michael Reed, Vicky Rodriguez, Marta Patiño Lado, Marta |
author_sort | Kachimanga, Chiyembekezo |
collection | PubMed |
description | PURPOSE: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is considered a major public health concern for Sierra Leone. Although medical students are at increased occupational risk for HBV infection, little is known about the burden of HBV infection amongst medical students in Sierra Leone. METHODS: As part of a screening and vaccination campaign, a cross-sectional study on prevalence of HBV among medical students in Freetown was conducted in December 2019. Antigen point of care test was used for HBV screening and data on students' risk history and demographics were collected. Additionally, for students diagnosed positive with HBV, linkage to care and initial assessment data after diagnosis was collected from the HBV clinic they were linked to. RESULTS: One hundred and fifty-seven medical students (77.3%) from year three to six were screened for HBV infection. Almost all students (98.1%) had never been vaccinated against HBV and more than half (56.7%) reported a history of needle stick injuries. The prevalence of HBV infection (Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positivity) was 10.2% (n = 16). Among HBsAg positive students, 75% (n = 12) were successfully enrolled at chronic HBV clinic within three months of diagnosis. Only one student had evidence of liver cirrhosis and was started on treatment with Tenofovir diproxil fumarate. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of HBV infection is high among medical students in Sierra Leone. Despite the high prevalence, most of the students linked to care had no evidence of severe liver disease. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7416683 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Elsevier |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-74166832020-08-10 Screening and linkage to care for medical students with hepatitis B virus infection in Sierra Leone Kachimanga, Chiyembekezo Bangura, Musa Nyama, Emmanuel Mhango, Michael Reed, Vicky Rodriguez, Marta Patiño Lado, Marta Heliyon Article PURPOSE: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is considered a major public health concern for Sierra Leone. Although medical students are at increased occupational risk for HBV infection, little is known about the burden of HBV infection amongst medical students in Sierra Leone. METHODS: As part of a screening and vaccination campaign, a cross-sectional study on prevalence of HBV among medical students in Freetown was conducted in December 2019. Antigen point of care test was used for HBV screening and data on students' risk history and demographics were collected. Additionally, for students diagnosed positive with HBV, linkage to care and initial assessment data after diagnosis was collected from the HBV clinic they were linked to. RESULTS: One hundred and fifty-seven medical students (77.3%) from year three to six were screened for HBV infection. Almost all students (98.1%) had never been vaccinated against HBV and more than half (56.7%) reported a history of needle stick injuries. The prevalence of HBV infection (Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positivity) was 10.2% (n = 16). Among HBsAg positive students, 75% (n = 12) were successfully enrolled at chronic HBV clinic within three months of diagnosis. Only one student had evidence of liver cirrhosis and was started on treatment with Tenofovir diproxil fumarate. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of HBV infection is high among medical students in Sierra Leone. Despite the high prevalence, most of the students linked to care had no evidence of severe liver disease. Elsevier 2020-08-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7416683/ /pubmed/32802989 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04673 Text en © 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Kachimanga, Chiyembekezo Bangura, Musa Nyama, Emmanuel Mhango, Michael Reed, Vicky Rodriguez, Marta Patiño Lado, Marta Screening and linkage to care for medical students with hepatitis B virus infection in Sierra Leone |
title | Screening and linkage to care for medical students with hepatitis B virus infection in Sierra Leone |
title_full | Screening and linkage to care for medical students with hepatitis B virus infection in Sierra Leone |
title_fullStr | Screening and linkage to care for medical students with hepatitis B virus infection in Sierra Leone |
title_full_unstemmed | Screening and linkage to care for medical students with hepatitis B virus infection in Sierra Leone |
title_short | Screening and linkage to care for medical students with hepatitis B virus infection in Sierra Leone |
title_sort | screening and linkage to care for medical students with hepatitis b virus infection in sierra leone |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7416683/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32802989 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04673 |
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