Prevalence and Risk Factors of Hepatitis B Infection in Injection Drug Users, Tehran (2001-2002)

Background andaims: hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection has a high incidence among injection drug users (idus). severalimportant behavioral risk factors influence transmission of hbv in this group. however, consensus has not beenachieved on many of them. the aim of this investigation was to assess the prevalence and risk factors for hbv in idus.methods: this cross-sectional study was carried out between 2001 and 2002 in tehran. idus included people who werebeing treated for drug abuse and those in the prison. physician-completed risk factor questionnaires and blood samples(5 ml) for serologic hbv markers (elisa) were used. risk factors were evaluated in binary logistic regression (lr)model (forward) procedure for possible association with odds of past or current hbv infection. the evaluated riskfactors were age, gender, sexual behavior, shared syringe use, duration of addiction, imprisonment, tattooing, pasthistory of surgery, dental procedures, blood transfusion, jaundice, type of illicit drug use and level of education.results: this study sample was comprised of 518 idus (89.6% males), including 386 (74.5%) prisoners. antibodyagainst hbv core antigen (hbcab) was detected in 61.2% (n=317). the prevalence of hepatitis b surface antigen(hbsag) was 3.7% (n=19). among hbsag positive patients, hbeag was positive in 12 individuals (63.2%). incomparison with seronegative idus for hbcab and/or hbsag, the odds of using shared syringes, male sex and pasthistory of bisexual relationship were 1.5 (p<0.05), 1.9 (p<0.05) and 2.4 (p<0.01), respectively.conclusions: these results suggest that seroprevalence of hepatitis b is high but chronic carrier state is not frequent inidus. imprisonment, male sex and having past history of bisexual relationship are independent risk factors for past orcurrent hepatitis b infection.