Assessment of Knowledge of Medical and Paramedical Health Care Providers about Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Egypt

Abstract

Health care workers are among the high-risk groups of acquiring HCV infection. Health care facilities represent a major threat to both health care workers and their patients if infection control measures are not followed strictly. Good knowledge of health care workers regarding HCV and its ways of prevention will be reflected on their practice, which will effectively minimize these risks. A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted on a group of health care workers (physicians, nurses) and traditional providers in six governorates including: Cairo as representative to the capital, Beni-suief and Assuit governorates as representative to urban and rural Upper Egypt, El Garbyia and El Dakahlya governorates as representative to urban and rural Lower Egypt, The Red sea governorate as representative to the Frontier Governorates. Group one represented the physicians; they were 130 physicians, with mean age (34±9.4) years, and the majority of them attended an infection control training course (75.4%). Group two represented the nurses, there were 143 nurses with mean age (33±10) years, with more than half of them (67.1%) had experience more than five years. Group three represented the traditional providers including: Midwives (dayas), barbers, traditional Injection givers, they were 133 providers with mean age (38±8.6), mostly females (68.4%).