Knowledge, attitude, and practice among clinical staff, cleaners, and phlebotomists’ toward occupational HIV exposure risk and postexposure prophylaxis at St. Paul's Hospital Millenium Medical College

Abstract

Abstract Background: HIV/AIDS is considered as one of the major occupational health hazard among healthcare personnel. Although avoiding contact with infected blood is one of the primary strategies for preventing the acquisition of HIV through occupational exposure, timely post exposure prophylaxis can reduce the rate of HIV transmission significantly. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards occupational HIV exposure risk and post exposure prophylaxis among Saint Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College clinical staff, cleaners, and phlebotomists. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive and analytic study was conducted from September to October 2023. The sample size was calculated using single proportional formula was 220. stratified random sampling technique was used at different departments in the hospital. A Structured questionnaire was used to collect data and then exported to SPSS Version 25 for analysis. A chi-square test was used to see the association between dependent and independent variable. Result: Among 220 participants, 55.9% (123) were female, and 62.3% (137) were in the age group of 31- 40 years. More than half (54.5%%) have a poor knowledge regarding occupational HIV exposure and similarly 50.9% of them had poor knowledge of PEP.Most staff (66.4%) did not receive any post-exposure prophylaxis training . Additionally 54.5% had negative attitude toward PEP and out of 51 respondents who exposed only 29.4% (15) took PEP. Phlebotomists were found to be 2.7 times (AOR=2.7, 95% CI (0.212 5.5)) likely had knowledge about occupational HIV exposure risk compared to respondents of other professions. Surgery staff had 1.5 times higher chances, of having a positive attitude towards PEP for HIV. Conclusion: More than half of the staff have poor knowledge on occupational HIV exposure risk and postexposure prophylaxis against HIV/AIDS. The result revealed that a significant number of individuals had a negative attitude and poor practice about PEP. Formal training is needed to improve the knowledge of proper use of personal protective equipment and HIV PEP to both clinicians and non-clinical hospital staff. Keywords: Occupational HIV exposure, Occupational exposure risk ,Post-exposure prophylaxis(PEP).