Introduction:

Health care personnel constitute a risk group for hepatitis B virus infection.

Objectives:

To evaluate the frequency of vaccination against Hepatitis B in medical and nursing professionals of three large hospital centers in the Central Department of Paraguay.

Materials and methods:

Quantitative, observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, cross-sectional study. A questionnaire was administered to medical and nursing personnel included in the study, based on related studies.

Results:

A total of 1097 people were surveyed, 412 (37.6%) were physicians and 685 (62.4%) were nurses. In general, a complete vaccination level of 48.2% of the total respondents was reached, 49.5% of men had a complete vaccination schedule and 47.7% of women. According to profession, the nursing staff had a better compliance with complete vaccination with 51% versus 47% of the medical staff. In the Hospital Central del Instituto de Previsión Social almost 62% had a complete schedule, the Hospital de Clínicas reached 40.9% and only 36.6% of the respondents of the Hospital Nacional de Itauguá had all the doses of anti-Hepatitis B vaccine. For low biological risk, the level of complete vaccination was 36.0%, reaching 36.8% for moderate risk and 57.3% for those at high risk of exposure.

Conclusion:

The level of complete vaccination against Hepatitis B in health personnel was low and should be improved, taking into account the biological risk of exposure. The infection control team and the occupational health department should keep a record of staff vaccination and have a mandatory immunization plan for it.

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