Research from the South Prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection among black children in Soweto

Roughly 15% of blackchildren in rural areas of southern Africaare carriers of thehepatitis B virus. The purpose of the presentstudy was to determine theprevalence of chronic hepatitis Bvirus infection among urban black children born andgrowing upin Soweto. A total of 2364 children were studied, ranging in agefrom 3 to 19 years, and of these, 1319 (56%) weregirls. Thechildren weredrawn from thehighest and the lowest socio-economic classes. Serumsamples were tested for all hepatitis Bvirus markers as well asIgG antibody against hepatitis Avirus.HBsAg wasdetected in 23(0-97%) of thechildren, anti-HBc and. Department of Medicine,Witwatersrand University Medical School, Johan-nesburg, South Africa AMDIBISCEGLIE, MB, FCPSA, physicianM C KEWMD, FRCP, professor andsenior physicianG MDUSHEIKO, MB, FCPSA, seniorphysicianE L BERGER, ssc, technologistE SONG, MB, FCPS, senior physicianH JHODKINSON, MB, FCnPA, senior physician South Afrcan Institute for Medical Research, Johannesburg, South Africa AC PATERSON, MB, PHD,pathologist Correspondence to: Professor Kew.anti-HBs together in'155 (6.6%), anti-HBc alone in 17(0.7%), andanti-HBs alone in,,72 (3%). Of,the 2364children, 2097(88.5%)were negative for all' hepatitis B virus markers. IgG antibody tohepatitis A virus was present in 175 (97%) of a sample of 179children. There was no difference inprevalence of hepatitis Bvirus markers betweenchidiren from the upper and lowersocioeconomic classes. HBsAg was more common in boys (16out of 1043(1.5%)) than girls (seven out of 1321(0-57%)), andtheprevalence of all hepatitis B virus markers increased with age.The youngest carrier of-hepatitis Bvirus was 7 years old.The remarkable difference in the hepatitis B virus camer ratebetween urban andrural black childrenoffers aunique oppor-tunity to investigate the favourable influences operating in anurbanenvironment tolimit the prevalence of hepatitis B virusinfection.