Hepatitis B vaccination rates among medical personnel at Ain Shams University Hospital and obstacles to vaccine uptake.

The current study included 1426 medical personnel working at Ain Shams University hospitals selected randomly; 354 staff members, 679 junior doctors (residents and internships) and 393 nurses. The overall vaccination coverage with at least one dose of HB vaccine was 40.6%. The overall coverage with 3 doses of HB vaccine was 29.1%. The mean number of working years was higher among the vaccinated group. More than 55% of personnel who had direct exposure or contact with blood were not vaccinated. HB vaccine uptake was conducted at the work place by 65.6% of vaccinated personnel and about 50% received the vaccine recently, i.e. less than one year. The side effects experienced by vaccinated subjects were local pain (5.4%) and headache (0.7%). About 38% of included personnel were not sure about the effectiveness of HB vaccine, and 47% do not know exactly the duration of vaccine validity. The current price of the vaccine was unaffordable as stated by 60.9% of subjects and 95.2% concluded that the vaccine should be funded. It was recommended that the work place is the best place for HB vaccine uptake by 80.9% of subjects and the vaccine should be obligatory for all medical personnel by 84.3% of subjects.