Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about Hepatitis C Virus Infection among the Health Care Workers in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Bangladesh.

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is emerging as one of the major health problems in Bangladesh. Worldwide, there are roughly 71 million people who are chronically infected. Prevalence of HCV infection in Bangladesh is 0.88%. Chronic HCV carriers have the potential of transmitting HCV parenterally in the hospital setting; thus, health care workers (HCWs) are at risk of contracting HCV, with the most likely exposure being via a needle stick injury (NSI). As there is no effective vaccine till today, personal protection, safe transfusion of blood and blood products, safe disposal of Hospital bio-waste and use of disposable or auto-disabled syringes would be the best preventive option for a country like Bangladesh. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding hepatitis C virus among health care workers in Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH). This cross-sectional observational study was conducted among 239 health care workers (79 Doctors, 100 Nurses, 50 Lab technicians and 10 Porters) from July 2019 to December 2019. Data were collected by structured questionnaire. The overall response rate was 85.0%. For knowledge about hepatitis C virus physicians were the most knowledgeable while porters are least knowledgeable group. Males who were over 40 years old and had working history of more than 10 years were most likely to show positive attitude towards hepatitis C. Physicians have more positive attitude than other groups. Those who received training had more positive attitude than others. In this study about half of participant took training about standard precaution. Though about fifty percent participant knows about protective measures but not all of them used it. Measures taken against blood borne viruses specially against hepatitis C virus are not satisfactory among the health care staffs of MMCH, Bangladesh. Therefore, a guideline should be put in place and implemented by the government and private health care authorities.