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Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination is mandatory among health care workers due to high risk of exposure to infection. However, the long-term protective effect of HBV vaccine and assessment of HBV vaccination status by measuring HBsAb remain questionable. Aim: assess the protective levels of anti-HBsAb among previously vaccinated medical residents and its relation to duration and doses of vaccine. Methods: Cross section study conducted on 202 residents working in Kasr Al-Aini Medical hospital (single center) HBV vaccinated. Serum HBsAb titer was tested using Elecsys® Anti-HBs II reagent by automated COBAS device system e-601. The residents were classified according to their protective antibody titer into three groups; negative protective titer (< 10IU/L), positive low protective titer (10-100 IU/L) and high positive protective titer (> 100 IU/L) groups. Results: Only 9.4% had negative protective titer, 35.15% had positive low protective titer and 55.45% had positive high protective titer. Negative protective HBsAb titer was significantly higher in males (15.5%), smokers (26.5%), with incomplete vaccination schedule (26.6%), compulsory vaccinated (53%) and last vaccine dose >10years (60.7%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the duration since last vaccination dose (<10years) and completion of vaccination schedule (≥3doses) are the significant independent factors for HBsAb protective levels with p value <0.001 and 0.012. Conclusions: Protective anti-HBsAb level is related to the number of years elapsed since vaccination and the number of vaccine doses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Treatment refusal, defined as active refusal of a patient to receive treatment despite physician recommendations, has not been extensively evaluated before in hepatitis C virus in the era of direct acting antivirals. Objective To investigate the reasons for refusal to receive hepatitis C virus treatment in Egypt. Methods an observational study conducted between July 2018 and November 2019 in Egypt. Enrollment was done to all patients who refused to get hepatitis C virus treatment during the national screening and treatment campaign. Reasons for their refusal were identified using a questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. Results Out of the 220 280 Egyptian hepatitis C virus patients who did not show up to start treatment and were contacted to get therapy, only 84 patients (0.038%) refused to receive treatment. The main reason for their refusal was having concerns about treatment (82.14%) and their main concern was the fear of adverse events (85.5%). Other causes of refusal were non-satisfactory experience at treatment centers (13.09%) and patients preferred to receive complementary and alternative medicines (4.7%). Most patients (65.4%) trusted the efficacy of directly acting antivirals for hepatitis C. None of the study participants was found to suffer from any psychiatric morbidity and the average score of the GHQ-12 was 10.7155. Conclusion Proper health education and awareness regarding hepatitis C virus treatment safety and efficacy is needed to increase treatment acceptance rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]