1982 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 311-319
In an attempt to define the relative risk of exposure to hepatitis B virus (HBV) for health-care personnel, we conducted a serologic survery of 3, 083 hospital employees and 2, 169 nonhospital personnel on Ishigaki Island, and in Miyazaki and Fukuoka Prefectures.
Average frequencies of 7.0 and 38.6% on Ishigaki Island, 3.2 and 25.1% in Miyazaki Pref. and 3.4 and 26.9% in Fukuoka Pref. for HBsAg and anti-HBs were found respectively. The frequencies of the antigen and antibody in the health-care personnel and the control group did not differ significantly. However, prevalence of seropositivity was slightly higher among the personnel than among the control and was highest in nurses (31.0%) and radiologists (30.8%).
The prevalence of seropositivity with age among the health-care personnel was closely associated with that among the control in all three areas.
However, a dramatic increase in the prevalence of seropositivity among nurses in surgery contrasted sharply with that among nurses in internal medicine.
It was suggested that the difference between our results and those of other investigators might have been due to a possible prevalence of seropositivity in the hospital employees prior to their employment.
