Abstract:
The aim of the study was to determine prevalence of Hepatitis B virus among population at Sharafat village on Almanagil province and to compare between ICT and ELISA for surface antigen detection and to detect HBV DNA by PCR. Randomly collected a total of ninety two subjects (n=92) were enrolled in this study. The serum samples were examined by ICT to detect HBsAg, only 6 out of 92 (6.5%) samples were HBsAg positive. ELISA test showed that 30 out of 92 (32.6%) samples were found positive for HBsAg. These 30 samples which was HBsAg positive by ELISA tested by nested PCR and all of them were found positive. The study indicated insignificant (P>0.05) association between HBV infection and risk factors including age, gender, marital status, history of blood transfusion and history of surgical operation. The distribution of positive cases in Gender was 16 (17.4%) of cases males and 14 (15.2%) were females, in Age groups the highest result was (8.7%) in group (5-15) years and there were no infections in age group (56-65), in marital status was 18 (19.6%) married and 12 (13%) were not married, No infections noticed in those had blood transfusion history, in those whose had history of surgical operation it was 9 (9.8%) of cases had history of surgical operation and 21 (22.8%) had no.
The study conclude that prevalence of HBV infection among population at Sharafat village on Almanagil province exceeds the estimated nationwide prevalence. However, that should not ignore this high prevalence and giving special attention to prevent outbreak of hepatitis B.
