Changing 14‐year trends in the epidemiology of hepatitis B virus infection in rural and urban Central–Eastern European areas

Abstract

In Poland, the prevalence of HBV infection constitutes an emerging public health concern. The aim of the study was to analyse changes in hepatitis B incidence rate by age, gender and place of residence in Poland between 1999 and 2012. The data were obtained from Polish state statistics institutions such as the National Institute of Public Health and State Sanitary Inspection. Relationships of hepatitis B incidence with age, gender and rural/urban areas were investigated using χ(2) and tests for two proportions with Bonferroni adjustment. The incidence of hepatitis B in rural and urban populations was compared using Wilcoxon's signed-rank tests. Joinpoint regression was used to analyse trends in hepatitis B incidence rate. In Poland, a total of 26 660 cases of hepatitis B were reported in the studied period and 31.6% of these cases occurred in rural areas. There was significantly declining tendency in the hepatitis B incidence rate in the initial period of the study. However, there were periods of significant increase of HBV incidence rate in women from rural areas aged 15-24 years (9.4%/year) and in women from urban areas aged 15-24 years (10.9%/year) and 25-64 years (3.8%/year) in the final years of the observation. Despite the success in controlling this infection, a significant increase in the incidence of hepatitis B among young women living in rural and urban areas, as well as in adult women in urban areas, has been noted.

Changing incidence of hepatitis B and persistent infection risk in adults: a population-based follow-up study from 2011 in China

“…According to our result, men suffered a higher HBV incidence rate which was the same as that reported in Central–Eastern European areas [ 26 ]. This may be due to increased exposure to sexual transmission risk factors in men such as homosexual sex and multiple sexual partners [ 27 , 28 ].…”

“…The large percentage of participants who were lost to follow-up may have an impact on our findings given that the lost population was mostly younger males. As was already indicated, both in our study and other research [ 26 ], HBV incidence was greater in men, which could lead to an underestimating of HBV incidence due to the lost population. However, in the final two screening rounds, the gender and age differences in HBV incidence were significantly diminished.…”

Changing Epidemiological Patterns of Infection and Mortality Due to Hepatitis C Virus in Poland

“…The results of the estimated linear trends of HCV with zero joinpoints were presented as average annual percentage change (AAPC). The estimated linear trends with one or two joinpoints were presented as partial annual percentage changes (APC) [ 26 , 27 ]. The differences in examined trends of HCV between rural and urban areas were also examined using the Wald test [ 25 ].…”

The effectiveness of hepatitis B vaccine in toddlers based on the five-year period national basic health research (Riskesdas 2007, 2013 and 2018) in Indonesia

“…Although the three Riskesdas periods showed a decrease in HBcAb levels, the percentage of HBcAb was actually higher in those with complete immunization status (11.4% in 2007 compared to 3.6% in 2013 and 1.3% in 2018) compared to those with incomplete immunization status (8.5% in 2007 compared to 2% in 2013 and 0.6% in 2018). There could be other factors that affected the exposure to hepatitis B virus infection such as population density which affects the transmission of hepatitis B virus infection ( Genowska et al , 2015 ). While 2013 Riskesdas, HBsAg was found to be lower in the completed vaccinated group (1%) than that in incomplete vaccinated group (2.7%) ( p < 0.05).…”

“…The possibility of an increase in anti-HBs indicated an increase in HBV infection, which was shown by an increase in HBsAg, because 2/3 of those infected with HBV were asymptomatic and can become carriers. This could be a source of transmission both vertically from mother to baby and horizontally from people around them who are infected with HBV ( Garcia et al, 2018 ; Genowska et al , 2015 ). This was also consistent with several other studies in Indonesia, which show that Indonesia is moderate to high endemic with an HBsAg value of around 2.5% to 10% ( Lusida & Yano, 2016 ; Wijayadi et al, 2018 ; Yano et al, 2015 ).…”