title: Hepatitis B surface antigen prevalence in blood samples tested at Cabell Huntington Hospital.
abstract: Hepatitis B is a major cause of chronic liver disease which leads to morbidity and mortality among patients. In the current era, when federal and governmental support for health care is shrinking, the HBsAg+ carrier state in West Virginia becomes an important factor for future health care planning. In this study, we retrospectively investigated the HBsAg+ carrier rate in serum samples studied in the Cabell-Huntington Hospital Laboratory from January 1990-January 1993. Only 50/6,209 (0.8%) serum samples were positive for HBsAg. These positive samples represented 10 different patients, 8/10 were females and only 4/8 were of child-bearing age. We conclude that HBsAg+ carrier state in patients from Cabell County is below the national average.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Marshall University School of Medicine, Huntington.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Elitsur
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002353:Carrier State / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014903:West Virginia / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens