Infection control and willingness to treat patients with infectious disease; Study of dental students in Aceh, Indonesia

Objective: This study aims to assess dental students’ preparedness for infection control, and willingness to treat patients with or potentially transmit diseases. Material and Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on 121 dental students from the Faculty of Dentistry Universitas Syiah Kuala in 2019. The questionnaire was used in a previous study in 2017 and consisted of demographic data, preparedness for infection control, and willingness to treat patients with infectious diseases. Results: There were 121 dental students, the majority are female with one year experience of clinical experience. For infection control preparedness, the majority of respondents already do personal protective equipment (64.5%) and sterilize instruments before use (74.4%), but for the willingness respondents prefer not to treat patients with transmitted diseases such as patients with tuberculosis (19.8%), people living with HIV/AIDS (19.8%), Hepatitis C (11.6) and also patient who potentially transmit infection such as sex workers (19%), injecting drug users (19.8%) and LGBT (14%). prefer not to treat patients who potentially transmit infection. The result of the Spearman correlation test shows infection control has no such correlation with the willingness (r<0.15) Conclusion: The practice of applying universal precautions has been carried out by respondents, but the levels of students’ willingness to treat patients with infectious diseases are still very low. It’s necessary to carry out continuing education regarding safety training so that it can enable dental students to work safely and no longer discriminate against patients.