Acute Hepatitis B Virus Infection: Relation of Age to the Clinical Expression of Disease and Subsequent Development of the Carrier State

Yupik Eskimos of southwestern Alaska have the highest known prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection of any general population in the United States. Prospective serological surveys of 1,280 seronegative Yupik Eskimos, performed between 1971 and 1976, identified 189 (14.8%) who developed serological...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Infectious Diseases
Main Authors: McMahon, Brian J., Alward, Wallace L. M., Hall, David B., Heyward, William L., Bender, Thomas R., Francis, Donald P., Maynard, James E.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 1985
Subjects:
Original Articles
eskimo*
Yupik
Alaska
Online Access:http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/151/4/599
https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/151.4.599
Description
Summary:Yupik Eskimos of southwestern Alaska have the highest known prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection of any general population in the United States. Prospective serological surveys of 1,280 seronegative Yupik Eskimos, performed between 1971 and 1976, identified 189 (14.8%) who developed serological evidence of hepatitis B virus infection. Twenty-six (13.8%) developed clinical hepatitis during the interval when seroconversion occurred. The proportion of patients with clinically apparent hepatitis increased with age ( P < .01), ranging from 9.5% of infections in patients who were four years of age or less to 33.3% of infections in patients who were 30 years of age or older. Twenty-five(13.3%) of the 188 individuals who were studied became chronic carriers of hepatitis B surface antigen. The risk of becoming a carrier was inversely related to the age of the patient at the time of infection ( P = .02). Among patients who were four years of age or less when infected, 28.8% became chronic carriers of hepatitis B, as compared with 7.7% of those who were 30 years of age or older.

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