Prevalence of Hepatitis B Serologic Markers among the Personnel of an Institution for Children with Deficiencies

Abstract

Background: The risk of infection by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in institutions for children with deficiencies has been established in several studies. The purpose of this work was to know the prevalence of HBV markers, among the employees in an institution of that kind, and its association with several risk factors. Methods: A transveral epidemiologic survey has been carried out to determine the markers prevalence of infection by hepatitis B virus (HBV) and its association with certain risk factors, among the 200 workers of an institution for children with deficiencies. Determinations, by radioimmunoassay were: HBsAg, anti-HBs and anti HBc. Results: The participation was 95 %, with a prevalence of any marker of 7.9 % (IC95+4.1-11.7). No HBs Ag caniers were detected, taking occupation as an indicator variable with three categories: Trades and auxihary health persormel versus teachers, the logistic regression analysis showed odds ratios, adjusted for age, sex and working time, for trades and auxihary heahh personnel, respectively. Conclusions: Vaccination is the preventive recommendation for HBV in these institutions because of the difficulty to find other factors associated to HBV. The possibilitity of introducing a universal vaccination is controversial.