hepatitis b virus infection and exposure among foreign-born asian americans in the u.s.

This study reports hepatitis b serologic test results among foreignborn asian americans. in 2013 2014, a sample of foreignborn asian american adults, (≥18 years of age) were drawn from communitybased organizations in the baltimorewashington metropolitan area. hepatitis b screening tests were administered, including tests for hbsag, antihbs, and antihbc. among total of 600 people who completed screening, 33 (5.5%) tested positive for hbsag, indicating chronic hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection. about 44% (n = 263) tested positive for antihbc, indicating a previous exposure to hbv. asian americans from vietnam (53.2%) had the highest exposure to hbv, followed by asian americans from korea (43.4%) and china (34.8%) (p lt; 0.001). in multivariate analysis, gender, age, education, and family history of hbv infection were associated with previous exposure to hbv infection. the prevalence of antihbc (44%) in our study group was much higher than that of a nationally representative sample in the nhanes study (6%), indicating that there is higher incidence of hbv in foreignborn asian americans than the general u.s. population.