The Journal of

  Background: Hepatitis B (HB) is one of the main health problems. Over 400 million people worldwide have been evaluated as infected patients or chronic carriers. Health care workers (HCWs) are of higher risk for infectious diseases including HBV infected patients. This study aims to evaluate the rate of HBS antibody among the HCWs of Shahid Sadoughi Burn hospital in Yazd.

  Methods: This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted on 52 staff of the hospital approved vaccinated against HBV. HBS antibody was measured by ELISA in blood samples. Anti HBS titer of more than 10 lu/ml was considered positive. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS (16) software using descriptive data analysis and Fisher exact test.

  Results: Among the 52 vaccinated staff of the hospital, 90.4% subjects had positive titers but 9.6% were negative. Females had higher titers (96%) than the males (85.2%).

  There was not a statically significant correlation between age, sex, accurate vaccination intervals and titer of HBS antibody, (P >0.05), but a positive correlation was found between duration after the last dose of vaccine and titer of HBS antibody (P= 0.046)

  Conclusion: More than 90% of the HCWS had immunity against HBV. Considering the importance of health care workers in transmission of blood born infections, a booster dose of hepatitis B vaccine should be delivered to those not having acceptable HBS antibody titer against HBV.