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Elizabeth NawaVanessa Tjijenda
Sylvester R. Moyo
Ndinomholo Hamatui
Original Research Article
Evaluating risk factors associated with pulmonary tuberculosis among Namibian health care workers
Elizabeth Nawa1, Vanessa Tjijenda1, Sylvester R. Moyo1 and Ndinomholo Hamatui*1,2
1School of Health and Applied Sciences, Department of Health Sciences, Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), Windhoek, Namibia.
2Namibia Institute of Environmental Health Research.
*Corresponding Author E-Mail: nhamatui(at)gmail.com
Tel.: +264-814685357
Elizabeth Nawa |
Vanessa Tjijenda |
Sylvester R. Moyo |
Ndinomholo Hamatui |
Article Number: irjpeh.20.013 | Pages: 89-99 | Vol. 7 (3), June 2020 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.15739/irjpeh.20.013
Received: February 14, 2020 Accepted: May 20, 2020 Published: June 5, 2020
Abstract
Health care workers (HCWs) are at a higher risk of acquiring pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) than the general population. To evaluate risk factors associated with PTB among Namibian HCWs. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 171 HCWs. A standardised interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data on history of TB, HCWs knowledge and perception on TB risks (n=150), key informant interviews and observations collected data on infection control (n=21), while five-year trends of TB diseases among HCWs was obtained from OP and IP record reviews. The prevalence of TB disease among HCWs progressively declined between 2013 and 2017. Factors considered to put HCWs at high risk of contracting TB included continuous exposure to tuberculosis patients, being in contact with undiagnosed patients, poor ventilation at health facilities, not following infection control measures, and over crowdedness at hospitals. Based on these findings, management at healthcare facilities were advised to continually monitor and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of all TB-IC measures, as well as develop remedial action at their hospitals.
Keywords:
Risk factors, pulmonary TB, healthcare workers, healthcare facilities, latent TB infection, nosocomial infection
How to Cite this Article
Nawa E, Tjijenda V, Moyo SR, Hamatui N(2020). Evaluating risk factors associated with pulmonary tuberculosis among Namibian health care workers. Int. Res. J. Public Environ. Health. 7(3):89-99
Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License.