A Survey of Positive Rates of HBsAg and anti-HBs in a Rural Area of Korea

Park, Jong Wook; Kim, Byeong Chae; Park, Jong Heon; Kim, Won Young; Koh, Young Il; Rheu, Dohyun

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
The positive rates of hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers differ according to age, sex, race, locality, sexual behavior, socioeconomic conditions, immunologic and genetic factors. It is a well-known fact that Korea is one of the endemic areas of HBV infection in the world. Past many reports have presented that the positive rates of HBsAg and anti-HBs in Korea were about 6~14% and 30~62%, respectively. However there were a few epidemiological surveys of rural communities on the positive rates of HBV markers. The present study undertook to determine the positive rates of HBsAg and anti-HBs in Hwasun county, a rural area of Korea.
METHODS
We performed Population-based cross- sectional study by random cluster sampling of registered residents in Hwasun county. Out of the 2,920 subjects (4.1%) scheduled for the survey, 1,913 residents underwent the actual examination. We tested HBsAg and anti- HBs by reversed passive hemagglutination (RPHA) and passive hemagglutination (PHA), respectively.
RESULTS
The positive rates of HBsAg and anti-HBs in all subjects were 5.6% and 20.8%, respectively, and those were 5.4% and 20.4% in 168 pregnant women, respectively. The positive rate of HBsAg was significantly higher in male (8.2%) than in female (4.0%) (p< 0.01). The positive rate of anti-HBs was 21.4% in female, but it was not significanly higher than in male (19.6%). There were no significant differences according to age groups in the positive rates of HBsAg and anti-HBs.
CONCLUSION
There are no significant changes in the positive rates of HBsAg and anti-HBs between the present study for Hwasun county and past many reports in Korea. Although the rate of hepatitis B vaccination increased significantly, it was not effective because that the vaccinated total numbers in the rural area of Korea were probably small. So it is very important to undertake a nationwide program of hepatitis B immunization and to educate the residents in rural areas of Korea.