Characterization of chronic hepatitis B cases among foreign-born persons in six population-based surveillance sites, United States 2001-2010.
National surveys indicate prevalence of chronic hepatitis B among foreign-born persons in the USA is 5.6 times higher than US-born. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded chronic hepatitis B surveillance in Emerging Infections Program sites. A case was any chronic hepatitis B case reported to participating sites from 2001 to 2010. Sites collected standardized demographic data on all cases. We tested differences between foreign- and US-born cases by age, sex, and pregnancy using Chi square tests. We examined trends by birth country during 2005-2010. Of 36,008 cases, 21,355 (59.3%) reported birth in a country outside the USA, 2,323 (6.5%) were US-born. Compared with US-born, foreign-born persons were 9.2 times more frequent among chronic hepatitis B cases. Foreign-born were more frequently female, younger, ever pregnant, and born in China. Percentages of cases among foreign-born persons were constant during 2005-2010. Our findings support information from US surveillance for Hepatitis B screening and vaccination efforts.
Division of Viral Hepatitis, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA, Sliu1110@gmail.com.
Stephen J
SJ
Liu
Kashif
K
Iqbal
Sue
S
Shallow
Suzanne
S
Speers
Elena
E
Rizzo
Kristin
K
Gerard
Tasha
T
Poissant
R Monina
RM
Klevens
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology