RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To report of IDU serologic control done in 1997 in comparison with another of 1990, in a Health-Care Area of Madrid, Spain, focussing to hepatitis B virus prevention. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study. LOCATION: Fuenlabrada-Leganés, 400,000 inhabitants Health-Care Area in the Southeast of Madrid. PATIENTS: 233 IDU submitted for serological study during 1997 (mean age, 29.5; standard deviation, 6.8; 85.8% males). INTERVENTIONS: HIV, HBV, HCV and Treponema pallidum; serological markers were done at Severo Ochoa Hospital and a search for previous reports since 1991. Study of HBV previous vaccination was done with HBsAb marker in HBV seronegative patients. RESULTS: Prevalence: HBV 39.5% (IC = 33.2-46.1), HCV 49.3% (IC = 42.8-55.9), HIV 11.1% (IC = 7.5-16.1), syphilis 3.4% (IC = 1.5-7). Statistically meaning falls in rates were detected comparing them with results from 1990 (HBV: 67.5%; HCV: 75.1%; HIV: 50.1%; n = 261; p < 0.001). Only 5 (3.55%) out of 141 HBV seronegative patients showed HBsAb titres above 10 mU/I, although 55 (39%) of them had been tested for HBV previously. Nineteen (20.6%) out of 92 patients with HBV markers had previous seronegative reports and 3 of them suffered an acute viral infection. CONCLUSIONS: We have seen a statistically meaning fall in seroprevalence of the studied agents although a low HBV vaccination rate was achieved.