The Evaluation of Exposure To Hepatitis a Virus in Hbsag-Positive Persons: a Multicentre Study From Turkey

Abstract

Chronic hepatitis B is a major public health problem in our country. Hepatitis A vaccination in HBV carriers who did not encounter with Hepatitis A virus is also significant. We aimed to evaluate the rate of exposure to HAV in HBsAg-positive persons, and the distribution of seronegative individuals according to age groups. Medical records of 4793 patients from 14 centers who were positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). A total 3514 cases (73.3%) were male and 1279 (26.7) were female. The HBsAg positive patients who were previously tested for HAV IgG at the time of firstly admitted to a center. HBsAg positive patients who were previously not tested for HAV IgG were tested and these . patients were confirmed serologically for HAV. The distribution of cases according to age were determined. In this study, 4793 HBsAg-positive patients were evaluated. The ratio of testing of anti-HAV IgG was very low during the first visit (54.2%). Seronegativity was highest in the age group under 19 years of age (26.2%) followed by 20-25 age group (15.5%) and 26-29 age group (12.5%). Testing of HAV serology should not be ignored in especially HBsAg-positive young adults and seronegative young adults should be vaccinated.