Estimates of chronic hepatitis B virus infection in the Northern Territory.

Corresponding author: Dr Nicholas Wood, Clinical Fellow, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases, Locked Bag 4001, Westmead NSW 2145. Telephone: +61 2 9845 1429. Facsimile: +61 2 9845 1418. Email: [email protected] Recent estimates of the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection obtained from the fi rst national serosurvey in Australia in 1996–99 range from 91,500 to 163,500 persons (0.49%–0.87%).1 A large proportion of these infections is known to occur in selected populations, including Indigenous people. Studies in the 1980s and early 1990s estimated that nearly half of all Indigenous schoolchildren had serological markers of HBV infection.2,3 A recent report showed that HBV notifi cation and hospitalisation rates in Australia are at least four times higher in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.4 The seroprevalence of HBV infection is likely to differ signifi cantly from the national rate in some areas, particularly the Northern Territory, where approximately 25 per cent of the population is Indigenous and universal infant HBV immunisation has been in place since 1990.5