Prevalence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV infections among patients in a psychiatric hospital in Greece.
OBJECTIVE
Psychiatric patients are considered to be at increased risk of infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), or HIV.


METHODS
This study retrospectively assessed the seroprevalence of these infections among psychiatric patients who were referred for laboratory testing over a 24-month period in a 415-bed tertiary care psychiatric hospital in Greece.


RESULTS
More than two-thirds of the 805 unique tested patients received care in short-term hospitalization units (patients receiving treatment for substance-related disorders were excluded from this analysis). Two percent tested positive for having the hepatitis B surface antigen, 9% for the HCV antibody, and 1% for HIV. Males were more likely than females to test positive for the HCV antibody (p=.04).


CONCLUSIONS
Compared with rates in the general population, in this study population the rate of HCV was more than ten times as high, the rate of HIV was three times as high, and the rate of HBV was comparable.
Kakisi
Ourania K
OK
Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Athens, Greece
Grammatikos
Anastasios A
AA
Karageorgopoulos
Drosos E
DE
Athanasoulia
Anastasia P
AP
Papadopoulou
Alexandra V
AV
Falagas
Matthew E
ME
D005260:Female; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D015528:HIV Seroprevalence; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies