Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the major public health problems in the world. According to the recent estimates, about one-third of the world population is infected with HBV [1, 2]. Of these, about 360 million people are chronic carriers and are at risk of developing liver diseases like cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The prevalence of chronic HBV infection greatly varies worldwide (0.5–20 %), due to differences in age at the time of infection and mode of acquisition. A disproportionately high prevalence of chronic HBV infections exists in Southeast Asian and sub-Sahara African countries [3–5].

Health care workers (HCWs) are at high risk of HBV infection in the health care settings. The prevalence rate of HBV in HCWs is about 2–10 times higher than the general populations in the world [6, 7]. In context of HCWs, the risk factors for HBV infection are percutaneous or mucosal exposure to infected blood or body fluids, using inadequately sterilized medical equipment or contact with non-intact skin [7]. The average risk for acquiring HBV infection after percutaneous exposure to infected blood has been estimated to be 6–30 %; whereas it is about 0.3 % for human immunodeficiency virus [8].

The risk of occupational exposure to HBV infection is highly prevalent among HCWs in developing countries, where the prevalence of HBV is high in general population, and the health settings are poor [9–12]. A cross-sectional study conducted in Ethiopia, for instance, showed that 7.3 % of HCWs were infected with HBV while only 0.9 % of non-HCWs who participated in the study were infected [11]. Other studies conducted among medical waste handlers and blood donors in Ethiopia revealed an HBV infection rate of about 6 and 2.1 % respectively [12, 13]. The higher risk of HBV infection among HCWs in developing countries could be attributed to the prevailing careless handling of contaminated objects, reuses of inadequately sterilized medical equipment, and an improper waste disposal system [14, 15].

Apart from the HCWs, trainees in the health care professions are also exposed to an equal magnitude of occupational risk of HBV, as they work in the same health care delivery system. In fact, the risk for accidental exposure among the trainees could be higher due to their lack of experience, insufficient training, duty overload, and fatigue [16, 17].

Hepatitis B virus infection can be prevented by adhering to universal precautions including the use of protective barriers like gloves, proper sterilization of medical equipment, proper hospital wastes management system and vaccination [18–21]. Moreover, post-exposure prophylaxis can be used as a means of HBV prevention after accidental exposure to contaminated blood or body fluids [18–20]. However, studies have indicated that there is a clear gap of knowledge among trainees of health profession towards the risks of occupational exposure to HBV infection. A study from Lao democratic People’s Republic (Lao DPR), for example, has indicated that 86.5 % of medical students had poor knowledge on modes of HBV transmission and risk perception [22]. A similar study from Cameroon has indicated poor practice among the study participants, with only 10 % vaccination rate against HBV, and 55.9 % accidental exposure to blood [23].

Knowledge, attitude, and practices study measures key knowledge, feelings, tendencies, or skills commonly shared by a community on particular issues. It has been used as a useful study tool to design public health policies by taking into account the awareness, beliefs, and health seeking behavior of the at-risk population. In Ethiopia, data regarding knowledge, as well as attitude and practice towards the occupational exposure to HBV among the students of health care professions is scarce, albeit the high prevalence of the infection in the general population [24–26]. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the KAP of the students of medicine and health sciences towards HBV in Northwest Ethiopia.

Exposure to blood-borne pathogens such as HBV infection remains a significant occupational hazard to HCWs, especially in countries where this infection is highly prevalent. KAP surveys have been used as important sources of data to design health intervention methods and public health policies. In Ethiopia, there is a paucity of data regarding the knowledge and practices towards occupational hazard of HBV among trainees in the health profession. The current study describes the KAP towards HBV infection among medical and health science students at the University of Gondar.

Despite the wide professional background of the study participants, our results showed that overall knowledge regarding HBV, its mode of transmission and prevention was high (86.2 %). Most respondents knew that exposure to infected blood or body fluid, contaminated needles, contact with non-intact skin or unsafe sexual contacts are risk factors for HBV infection. This finding was consistent with the previous study from Cameroon that reported a good knowledge of the study participants on HBV infection [23]. But, it was higher than the 56.2 % knowledge levels at Haramaya University, Ethiopia [24], 59 % from Iraq [28] and 14.5 % from Lao DPR [22]. Nevertheless, we found that relatively lower proportion of the students knew that HBV has treatments (52.4 %) and post-exposure prophylaxis (67.1 %). This indicating that there is a need to alleviate the gaps as these might affect seeking medical attention.

In this study, the overall attitude towards HBV prevention among the participants was favorable. More than 75 % of the participants were aware that they are at risk of contracting HBV and believe that HBV vaccine is effective and safe. This finding was in line with the report from Saudi Arabia among dentists [29]. Our study revealed that most of the study participants had malpractice towards HBV prevention, in spite of their good knowledge and positive attitude on the disease and its prevention measures. Risky practices among the study participants were highly prevalent, with 28.6 % of them had exposed to blood accidentally; and 46.3 % had no intension to report the accident. This finding suggesting that there is a need to address the gap by strengthening health education on universal safety precaution for prevention of infections. Yet, when compared with the reports from other countries, the finding 28.6 % rate of accidental exposure to blood was lower than the 55.9 % rate reported from Cameroon [23], 48 % from Nigeria [30], and 40 % from Palestine [31].

In terms of vaccination against HBV, WHO recommends the preventive vaccine to all HCWs in countries with high HBV endemicity. However, this study revealed the least vaccine acceptance rate (2 %) among the study participants compared to a number of similar studies [22, 23, 32]. The low HBV vaccine acceptance rate among the study participants might be partly ascribed to the inaccessibility of HBV vaccine as it was included into the Ethiopian immunization program in 2007.

This study has a limitation in that we could not confirm the information regarding HBV vaccination as the study participants came from different parts of the country. The data was obtained by questionnaire, and therefore, there could be a recall bias of the participants. Despite the limitations, the findings of this study highlighted that there is a critical need for immunizing trainees in health profession against this highly contagious pathogen.

Our data demonstrated that trainees in health profession are at a very high risk of contracting HBV infection during their training owing to low HBV vaccine uptake rate and high rate of accidental exposure to blood. Thus, we recommend that all students in the health care profession should be vaccinated prior to their entry into professional practices.