A Study on The Change of HBsAg and Anti-HBs Positivities for A Recent 15 Year Period in Korea

Lee, Soo Jung; Na, Ho Young; Park, Min Ho; Park, Geun Soo; Choi, Sung Kyu; Lee, Kang Jin; Moon, Jai Dong; Kim, Sei Jong

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The HBsAg positivity in the normal Korean population has been reported as 2-10%. It has been decreasing since hepatitis B vaccine was introduced to routine vaccination regimens in 1992. Reports on the changes of anti-HBs over the years are hard to find since the discrepancies in sensitivities of test methods used by different researchers did not allow equivalent comparisons. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes of HBsAg and anti-HBs posivities for a recent 15 year period.
METHODS
From 1998 to 2000, 4771 subjects in Chonnam province were included in this study. Serum HBsAg and anti-HBs were detected by reversed passive hemagglutination (RPHA) and passive hemagglutination (PHA) respectively. The changes in the HBsAg and anti-HBs positivity by the same test methods for the period were analyzed by comparing our results with those of 12 other previous reports.
RESULTS
The positivities of HBsAg and anti-HBs were 5.3% and 47.5%. The positivity of HBsAg was significantly higher in males, while that of anti-HBs was significantly lower in males (p<0.01). There was a significant difference of HBsAg and anti-HBs positivities among age groups which were arbitrarily divided by decade (p<0.01). But there was no correlation between age and the positivities. In the HBsAg positive group and the anti-HBs negative group, abnormality in ALT level (ALT>40) was significantly higher statistically (p<0.01). The positivity of HBsAg decreased with years (r=-0.845, p<0.01), while that of anti-HBs increased with years (r=0.616, p<0.05).
CONCLUSION
The positivity of HBsAg has significantly decreased and that of anti-HBs has increased with years for the period under study.