The reliability of personal and family medical histories in the identification of hepatitis B carriers.

ABSTRACT

Blood specimens were obtained from 300 patients and were tested for the five hepatitis B virus (HBV) serum markers HBsAg, HbeAg, anti-HBs, anti-HBe and anti-HBc. Medical histories were checked to determine any previous experience of HBV infection in the patients or their families. Serum markers showed that 54.3% of the group had evidence of earlier HBV infection, 10% were HBsAg carriers, and 3% were HBeAg-positive. The patients' own histories correctly identified carriers in 23.1% of those giving a positive HBV history (p less than 0.05). Family histories were found to be an unreliable means of detecting HBV carriers. HBeAg carriers were twice as likely to be identified by their histories than HBsAg carriers. Blood donation refusal was the most frequent indicator of previous HBV infection.