Current Studies - Hepatitis
Title: A Demonstration project on health care worker protection against Hepatitis B in Kalulushi District
The project aims to achieve the following objectives;
The project aims to achieve the following objectives;
- To undertake a baseline evaluation of HCWs in Kalulushi district in order to profile HBV exposure status.
- To develop a comprehensive HBV prevention and care package for implementation and to assess its practical feasibility.
- To immunise HCWs who are non-immune to HBV and demonstrate attainment of protective anti-HBs antibody levels in their serum.
- To demonstrate attained cell-mediated protection against HBsAg after vaccination.
- To link HCWs with chronic HBV infection to treatment and anti-viral medication if necessary.
- To undertake a cost and cost-effectiveness analysis of a universal HBV strategy targeted at HCWs in Kalulushi district
- To make policy recommendations at the end of the project for consideration of scale-up and wide spread implementation among HCWs in Zambia.
- As a demonstration project, the study recruited all willing health care workers in the district including students in allied health training institutions.
- The project has since enrolled 676 participants from whom immunological profiling and vaccination is being conducted.
- An already licensed vaccine is being used to vaccinate those who were found not protected against HBV.
- Kalulushi district All health facilities in Kalulushi district have been included in this study including two health allied training institutions
