Investigation Into Hepatitis B Virus Prevalence, Risk Factors And Health Care Workers’ Awareness In Kavango East And West Regions Of Namibia

ABSTRACT

Available data has shown that most deaths due to liver cancer and cirrhosis are primarily attributed to the complications of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infections, globally. Countries ought to have well-documented information on the HBV prevalence and risk factors to be able to understand and interrupt its transmission. In Namibia, data on the HBV prevalence and risk factors are scanty and older than two decades. Also, health care workers’ (HCWs) awareness on the HBV prevention and control are inadequate. The purpose of this study was to investigate HBV prevalence, risk factors and health care workers’ awareness on HBV prevention and control aspects in Kavango East and West (KE&W) regions. The study adopted a quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical design. Firstly, the researcher interviewed purposively selected HCWs from the Ministry of Health (17 respondents) and private health clinicians (13 respondents) about their awareness on HBV. Next, all the pre-existing HBV laboratory results from Namibia Institute of Pathology (NIP), January-December 2013 were retrieved and analyzed. Thereafter, a population-based survey, which included 720 randomly selected subject individuals from 20 households in 36 lusters in KE&W regions, was conducted, by interviewing respondents or their caretakers. One drop of blood was drawn from each respondent and was tested for hepatitis B surface antigen, using Uni-Gold HBV rapid diagnostic kits. All the responses were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software, version 24. The frequencies, cross-tabulations, logistic regression, bivariate and risk factor analysis were performed. Based on this analysis, the health care workers’ awareness on HBV prevention, were found to be insufficient. The pre-existing HBV laboratory results showed HBV positivity rate of 11.8% nationally, with Kavango region showing the highest prevalence of 16.3%. The HBV prevalence survey in KE&W regions showed an overall prevalence of 7.1% for the two regions combined, but when disaggregated by region, Kavango West showed 12.3%, compared to5.0% of Kavango East.