HBsAg and Anti-HBs Seroprevalence: Results and Evaluation of Three Years

Abstract

HBV infection is a serious public health problem in our country and in the world. Considering that one out of every three people in the world has encountered HBV, this number corresponds to approximately two billion people, and that approximately 300 million of them are active chronic HBV patients, the severity of the situation is understandable. Since most of the HBV seroprevalence studies conducted in our country are performed on blood donors, they may contain errors in terms of sampling technique. Our aim is to bring to the literature a seroprevalence study that eliminates these errors, is reliable and has more than 300 thousand cases.

In our study, the results of the patients who applied to primary health care institutions for various reasons between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2021 and were asked for HBsAg and anti-HBs tests were retrospectively analyzed from the Gaziantep Public Health Laboratory information management system.

The number of cases tested for anti-HBs seroprevalence was 309 037 and the number of positive cases was 171 119 (55.38%), the number of cases tested for HBsAg seroprevalence was 321 600 and the number of positive cases was 7619 (2.38%).

In a meta-analysis including 129 studies in our country, HBsAg seroprevalence was determined as 6.72% in Turkey and 4.57% in region C, where Gaziantep is located. In our study, it was determined as 2.38%. In narrow-scope and low-case studies on anti-HBs seroprevalence in various regions of Turkey, rates between 20.6% and 52.3% were found. In our study, Anti-HBs seroprevalence was found to be 55.38%.

We believe that the data presented by our study on HBV epidemiology will be useful for chronic hepatitis treatment and health planning strategies both in Turkey and in the world.