title: Relationship between the prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen and arbovirus in fishermen from the Ribeira Valley, Brazil.
abstract: Sera from 299 fishermen 16 to 80 years old, residents in Cananeia and Iguape counties, southern cost of São Paulo State, Brazil, were studied in order to identify a possible association between the prevalence of specific antibodies to the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and exposure to haematophagus mosquitoes evaluated by the prevalence of arbovirus antibodies. This professional group presented the highest prevalence of arbovirus antibodies (54.1%) in past investigations carried out in this heavily forested region. Detection of antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) in the sera was done by enzyme immunoassay (Roche). Prevalence of anti-HBc antibodies in this group was 31.4% (94/299) which is very high compared with 7.2% to 15.0% for different groups of healthy adults in State of São Paulo. No significant difference is observed between the prevalences of HBV antibodies in Iguape and Cananeia. Prevalence of anti-HBc and anti-arbovirus antibodies increases with age. There is a concordance in the distribution according to age groups of the frequency of anti-HBc and anti-arbovirus positive sera. Ag HBs was detected in 4% of the studied sera. These results support the hypothesis that the transmission of the hepatitis B virus and the arboviruses may be due to the same factor, one of the possibilities would be by anthropophilic mosquitoes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Public Health School, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Iversson
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Granato
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Travassos da Rosa
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Pannuti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000818:Animals; D001103:Arboviruses / Q000276:immunology*; D001938:Brazil; D009033:Culicidae / Q000382:microbiology; D004199:Disease Vectors; D005398:Fisheries; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000635:transmission; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence
chemical_list: D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens