Acute parvovirus B19 infection is a risk for pregnant women. After vertical transmission the infected fetus may develop hydrops fetalis. Since B19 infection occurs mainly during childhood, children represent a main source for virus transmission. In order to determine whether certain groups in the German population show increased risks for B19 infection we analysed the seroprevalence using 6583 sera collected from adults in former Eastern and Western Germany during the German National Health Survey and 649 sera from healthy Thuringian children and adolescents. In adults the overall seroprevalence was 72.1%, rising from 20.4% in children (1-3 years) and 66.9% in adolescents (18-19 years) to 79.1% in the elderly (65-69 years). Significant differences were observed between females (73.3%) and males (70.9%) and between inhabitants of small (74.8%) and big cities (69.0%) but not between people of the former Eastern (72.8%) and Western states (72.0%) of Germany. For women during childbearing age (18-49 years) highest values were observed in those living together with two or more children (81.6%) and in women with occupational contact with children aged <6 years (88.9%). In contrast seroprevalence was significantly lower in age-matched female singles (64.8%) and in women with occupational contact with children aged >6 years and adolescents (63.8%).
The prevalence of hepatitis B virus markers was investigated in 5305 individuals considered to be representative for the adult German population. After adjustment of the data according to the age and sex distribution in the whole German population an anti-HBc prevalence of 8.71% (95% confidence interval, 7.94-9.48%) and an HBsAg carrier rate of 0.62% (95% confidence interval, 0.40-0.84%) were calculated. Anti-HBc prevalence increased with age from 4.12% in the youngest group to 15.66% in the 61-70-year-old. The percentage of HBsAg carriers showed a maximum of 1.12% in the 41-50-year-old individuals and decreased significantly in the older age groups. 1.40% (95% confidence interval, 1.08-1.72%) of individuals had anti-HBc only. There was a trend to higher rates of this pattern in males than in females; a significantly higher percentage of persons with anti-HBc only was found in anti-HBc-positive individuals below 31 years than in older individuals. Five participants with anti-HBc only (7.7%, or about 0.1% of the whole population) showed HBV-DNA despite the absence of HBsAg. 3.1% of anti-HBc positive individuals where also positive for anti-HCV, that was significantly higher than the percentage of anti-HCV-positives among persons without any HBV marker (0.46%). This study provides a comprehensive picture of the current hepatitis B situation in Germany, showing new data especially on the distribution of HBsAg in the general population and on the subgroup of individuals with anti-HBc only.
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