Prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection amongst healthy Nepalese males.

ABSTRACT

Sera from 478 healthy Nepalese males, inhabiting various districts of five development regions of Nepal were collected from October 1996 to March 1997 and examined for the presence of HBsAg by third generation ELISA and latex agglutination test in the laboratory of Central Department of Microbiology, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur. The surface antigen was detected by ELISA in 4% (19/478) of subjects studied. However, different results were obtained in Latex agglutination test. The correlation between the results obtained from these two different tests is statistically significant (X2 = 85.11, P < 0.05). The results obtained from ELISA showed the probability of Nepal to fall in WHO category of intermediate endemicity zone for hepatitis B infection. The percent positivity of HBsAg was found to increase steadily from Eastern (2%) to Far Western (6%) development regions. None of the samples represented from Kathmandu valley were positive for HBsAg. Hepatitis B infection was present in the age groups of 16-20 years and 36-40 years. The levels of ALT were assayed in all samples recorded positive for HBsAg from ELISA. Sixteen percent (3/19) of the infected subjects had raised ALT levels while 84% (16/19) had normal levels.