Knowledge and practice of HIV post exposure prophylaxis among health care workers in a tertiary hospital, North-West, Nigeria

Health care workers (HCW) might be exposed to different infectious agents like the human immunodeficiency virus while performing their duties otherwise called occupational exposure. The knowledge and practice of these workers about postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) can effectively prevent HIV infection in such individuals. World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that every individual exposed should be treated within 72 hours. We aimed to assess the knowledge and practice of HIV PEP among the healthcare workers in a tertiary facility in Northwest, Nigeria. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to June 2021 among healthcare workers at Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital (BDTH). A semi structured pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used for the collection of data. This was however divided into sections including socio-demographic status of the respondents, knowledge and practice related to PEP of HIV. Analysis of data was done using IBM SPSS version 23 Software. Out of 236 questionnaires administered, 225 were adequately completed and returned, with a response rate of 95.3% of which majority of the respondents were females (67.1%) and majority were (63.6%) 40 years and below. More than half of the respondents 133 (59.1%) had poor knowledge of PEP, knowledge of PEP was found to be statistically associated with occupation P<0.000, gender p=0.042 and formal training on PEP. On the other hand, variables, like age, marital status and years of service did not show any significant association with knowledge of PEP. Among the HCW, 71 (31.6%) had been exposed to sources of HIV at the workplace via splash of blood, needle pricks and so on, 29 (40.8%) started PEP and up to 18 (62.1%) of them completed the required treatment.A significant number of the HCW had poor knowledge of PEP, suboptimal use of the treatment when exposed but fairly good completion rate for those that commenced treatment.