Seroepidemiological Studies of Hepatitis Viruses in the Dominican Republic. I. The Prevalence of Markers of Hepatitis A, B and C Viruses.

Abstract

Abstract:A total of 408 subjects (Group I) visiting the center of gastroenterological diseases, Aybar Hospital, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and 2,000 apparently healthy individuals (Group II) living in 6 different cities in the Dominican Republic were tested for antibodies against Hepatitis A virus ( anti -HAY) , Hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBsAg) and Hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) . The presence of HBsAg in their sera was also tested. The study demonstrated that most of the Dominican population are infected with HAV by the age of 15 years and that HBV infection is still prevalent in the country. The overall prevalences of HBsAg and of anti-HBs were 3.2% (Group II) to 4.7% (Group I) and 18% (Group II) , respectively, although HBsAg prevalence rate in young children was very low. In contrast to the predominant HAV and HBV infections, most of the anti-HCV-positive individuals were concentrated in the age groups of higher than 40 (Group II) and 50 (Group I) years old and only a few sero-positive individuals were observed in the younger population, suggesting that there have been few transmissions of HCV in the Dominican population in the past 40 to 50 years.