[Prevalence of serological markers of the hepatitis B virus in the out-patient population of the city of Vigo]. / Prevalencia de marcadores serológicos del virus de la hepatitis B en población extrahospitalaria de la ciudad de Vigo.

OBJECTIVE: To discover the prevalence of serological markers of the Hepatitis B virus in the out-patient population of the city of Vigo. DESIGN: A year-long retrospective study (from January to December, 1990) of a total of 4,581 serums belonging to patients. These came to our laboratory from patients who attended the out-patient clinics of the Hospital Xeral in Vigo. The HBs Ag, anti-HBc and anti-HBc IgM (this last if the total anti-HBc showed positive) were then determined. SITE. Primary Care and Digestive Clinics of the Hospital Xeral of Vigo's Health Area. PATIENTS OUR OTHERS PARTICIPANTS: All pregnant women were excluded from the study. The rest were men and women between 18 and 69 who provided a total sample of 4,581 serums. MAIN MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: These findings were as follows: 954 serums had some positive marker, which presumes a prevalence of 20.8% with a Confidence Interval of +/- 0.79 (p < 0.05). Pattern 1 had 39 cases, which was 0.8% of the total number of serums studied. Pattern 2 had 141 cases (3.1%). Pattern 3 had 5 cases (0.1%). Pattern 4 had 769 cases (16.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Pattern 4 was the most common (80.6%), followed by Pattern 2 (14.8%) and Pattern 1 (4.1%). The rarest was Pattern 3 with 0.5%. The percentage of positive markers was greater in men than in women: this was a statistically significant difference. Overall prevalence was 20.8%. In order to reduce the number of people infected by this important disease--one which carries extremely serious socio-economic repercussions--it would be in principle advisable to vaccinate all those in high-risk groups.

[Utility of systematically determining serum HBsAg in the 3d trimester of pregnancy]. / Utilidad de la determinación sistemática del HBsAg sérico en el tercer trimestre de la gestación.

A group of pregnant women living in the south of the province of Pontevedra (Spain) have been studied in order to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B virus biological markers. For that respect we have prospectively studied HBsAg and other markers in 535 pregnant women from June 1987 to March 1988. The prevalence of HBsAg was 0.75%, and in 6.12% certain biological markers were detected. Only one carrier fulfilled the current criteria recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for selective screening of pregnant women. Although the prevalence and costs of the detection are similar to those for voluntary blood donors of the same region (1%), the frequency with which infected neonates develop chronic antigenemia along with the low sensitivity of the selective screening justifies the systematized serological study of the pregnant women.