An aberrant high prevalence of hepatitis B infection among Afghans residing in one of the Bushehr refugee camps (Dalaki camp) in the southwest of Iran.

The migration of refugees not only facilitates but also increases the risk of the spread of infectious diseases such as viral hepatitis. During the two last decades, because of 23 years (1978—2001) of civil war in Afghanistan, a considerable number of Afghan people have left their homeland and have migrated to neighboring countries. Iran, as Afghanistan’s western neighbor, has hosted approximately two million Afghan citizens. Evaluating the prevalence of viral hepatitis markers among refugees is necessary for health control planning. The aim of this retrospective cross-sectional study was to evaluate the immunity level of Afghan refugees to hepatitis B virus (HBV). The prevalence of hepatitis B markers was assessed on collected frozen sera from Afghan citizens who had settled in the camp at Dalaki in the province of Bushehr in the southwest of Iran. Thirty-seven Afghan couples (74 individuals) were enrolled in this survey (mean age 44.7 years; range 28—60 years). The results of testing for HBV seroprevalence markers are shown in Table 1. The highest HBsAg (hepatitis B surface antigen) prevalencewas observed in the 51—60 years age range (100%), while the lowest rate belonged to the 28— 35 year-olds (26.1%). Surprisingly, of 37 Afghan couples, eleven couples (29.7%) were both HBsAg positive; three couples (8.1%) showed no evidence of HBsAg and among the remaining 23 couples (62.2%) only the husbands were Correspondence