anti hav antibody in hbv carriers

background: with respect to the importance of hepatitis a in patients with chronic liver disease, current study was conducted with the aim of determining the prevalence of previous hepatitis a infection in hepatitis b virus carriers with different stages of liver disease. materials and methods: this was a cross sectional study. 283 hbsag positive subjects (including 118 inactive carriers, 144 patients with chronic active hepatitis and 21 cirrhotic subjects)â were selected from tehran hepatitis center within 3 months period in 2004. all subjects were assessed for anti hav ab, demographic data, risk factors of blood borne disease, place of birth, place of living, history of jaundice, history of hepatitis patients, alt, ast, platelet, stage, grade and score. results: from all subjects, 224 patients (79.2%) were affected with hav. 89 inactive carriers (75.4%), 115 patients with chronic active hepatitis (79.9%) and 20 cirrhotic patients (95.2%) were anti hav ab positive. 47 patients under 30 year (65.3%), 123 those between 30 and 49 years (80.4%) and 54 over 50 years old subjects (93.1%) were positive for hav infection (p=0.000). conclusions: our results indicated that 80% of patients with hepatitis b have previous infection with hepatitis a and 20% of them are susceptible to it. the frequency of infection rises with increasing age. because of increased fatality of this infection in higher ages, vaccination against hepatitis a in this population is recommended.