title: Persistence of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen.
abstract: Sera from military personnel found to have antibodies to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBS) in an epidemiological study of a hepatitis B outbreak were tested for persistence of that antibody 1 year later. Initially, 64% of the anti-HBS-positive sera reacted in passive hemagglutination tests with erythrocytes coated with hepatitis B surface antigen of both ayw and adw subtypes; the remaining sera reacted only with adw-coated erythrocytes (19%) or ayw-coated erythrocytes (17%). After 1 year, anti-HBS was detectable by passive hemagglutination tests in 87% of individuals with initial antibody to both subtypes but in only 41% and 16% (P less than 0.001) of those initially reacting only to adw- or ayw-coated erythrocytes, respectively. Seropositivity for anti-HBS correlated best with history of contact with jaundiced people (20.3%) and duty in Asia.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000906:Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006386:Hemagglutination Tests; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000276:immunology*; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008887:Military Medicine; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens