Hepatitis B carriage and Brucella seroprevalence in urban and rural areas of Bolu province of Turkey: a prospective epidemiologic study.
OBJECTIVE
In this study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen positivity and antibodies against Brucella in rural and urban areas of Bolu province of Turkey.


METHODS
A total of 4,234 [corrected] people were screened from the urban and rural regions (3084 [corrected] versus 1150, respectively). All sera were evaluated for HBsAg and Brucella antibody.


RESULTS
HBsAg, rose bengal and serum tube agglutination positivity were found to be 2.85%, 1.0%, 0.46%, respectively, in the urban area, versus 2.6%, 1.7%, 1.1%, respectively, in rural areas (P>0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
HBsAg seropositivity in Bolu is lower than in many other centers in Turkey. Brucella prevalence is 1%, which is higher than that in the Ministry of Health records. This shows that the recording system in our country is not very efficient. Similar studies should be carried out in different regions of our country to determine the actual values, which requires the cooperation of scientific foundations and the Ministry of Health.
Karabay
Oğuz
O
Department of Infectious Diseases, Izzet Baysal Medical Faculty, Bolu, Turkey.
Serin
Erdinç
E
Tamer
Ali
A
Gökdoğan
Feray
F
Alpteker
Hacer
H
Ozcan
Arzu
A
Gündüz
Hüseyin
H
D017677:Age Distribution; D002002:Brucella / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002353:Carrier State / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019353:Endemic Diseases; D005260:Female; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012424:Rural Population; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population