Epidemiología de la infección por el virus de la hepatitis B en dos poblaciones del departamento del Magdalena

Abstract

During 1989 a seroprevalence survey on infection by HBV was peformed in two villages in the Northern Colombia coast in the Department of Magdalena: Cerro Azul an Varela which very recently have had cases of fulminant hepatitis caused by con - and superinfection by hepatitis Delta virus in carriers of HBsAg. According to the survey the results showed that among the population at the village of Cerro Azul, with the largest number of cases of fulminant hepatitis, the hepatitis B vinis infection starts in very early infancy, probably due to horizontal transmission and when they reach 15 years, half of them had been already infected by HBV. The principal factors associated to this infection were abscence of adequate excrete disposal, crowdness, and relatives dyeing of hepatitis. The second village, Varela, less compromised by fulminant hepatitis, reveals a delayed onset of hepatitis B virus infection and from the age of 15 to 30 years, half of that population has adquired the infection by hepatitis B virus. Among them the factors associated are: inadequacy of excrete disposal, history of blood transfusions, parenteral pharmacological agents, and history of deaths by hepatitis among the epidemiological family.