Socio-demographic characteristics of health care workers and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in public teaching hospitals in Khartoum State, Sudan

HBV is second to tobacco as a known human carcinogen and the 10th leading cause of death worldwide. To examine the socio-demographic characteristics of health care workers and hepatitis B virus in Public Teaching Hospitals in Khartoum State, Sudan, in 2004. It was an observational, cross sectional, facility-based study. A total of 843 subjects were selected. It was conducted through multistage cluster sampling. The clustering was based on: type of hospital (Federal or State) and degree of exposure (type of department). For the analysis, Z-test for single proportion and some non-parametric tests such as Chi-Square test were used. Among the 843 subjects tested for HBV markers (Anti-HBc, HBsAg, HBsAb, and HBeAg), the prevalence of Anti-HBc, HBsAg, HBsAb, and HBeAg was found to be 57%, 6%, 37% and 9% respectively. Seroprevalence of all HBV markers was found to be statistically significant with demographic factors (P