Knowledge and Awareness Regarding Swine-Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection among Dental Professionals in India - A Systematic Review.

Introduction: Swine flu or Influenza A (H1N1) flu is the most recent of the pandemic disease that has affected the world's population. We, as health care providers should feel responsible for reducing the transmission of influenza.

Aim: To conduct a systematic review of observational studies and to assess dental professionals' knowledge and awareness regarding swine flu.

Materials And Methods: Relevant cross-sectional observational studies were included in the systematic review to assess the level of knowledge and awareness regarding swine flu among dental professionals. Three studies out of 28 were finally included in the present review after conducting both electronic and manual search of scientific databases like Pubmed, Medline, and EMBASE. No limitation in terms of publication date and language was considered. Potential biases were reported and appropriate data were extracted by the concerned investigators. Descriptive statistics, student t-test were used for analysis.

Results: Majority of the subjects (92.6%) had heard about swine flu, and 64.3% of them knew about the H1N1 virus in one of the study reports. More than 80% of subjects were aware regarding the availability of swine flu vaccine in one study reports as compared to another study in which only 31.5% had awareness. Majority of the subjects were of the opinion that frequent hand washing and use of sanitizer are one of the effective methods to prevent swine flu in all the three studies.

Conclusion: The results of the present review showed that some knowledge gaps existed among dental professionals regarding swine flu. Therefore, there is an urgent need for training and continuous education programs regarding infectious diseases.