Abstract
Hepatitis B continues to be a worldwide threat to human health, especially if infection
occurs in childhood. Universal vaccination is recommended by WHO, but has not been
implemented in the Scandinavian countries, Holland and UK, because of a low incidence
rate. However, clinically overt infections are rare in childhood. We therefore performed
a nation wide serosurvey for HBV markers in 2428 children aged primarily 6–16 years
from 16 primary schools in Denmark. Anti-HBc was found in altogether 20 children (0.8%),
12 of whom were among 144 immigrant children (8.3%) compared to 8 (0.4%) in those
born in Denmark. Three of the children, all immigrants, were HBsAg positive indicating
chronic infection. At school level no relation of anti-HBc in Danish born children
was found to schools with high number of immigrant children or schools with HBsAg
positive children indicating a low risk of Hepatitis B transmission in this setting.
The results do not support implementation of general vaccination, but stress the need
for HBV screening in immigrants as it provides a mean for immunization of close contacts
at risk and information on prevention.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
May 3,
2003
Identification
Copyright
© 2003 The British Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
