Review
NEW YORK, May 11 — Asian immigrants in the United States are at a dramatically increased risk for hepatitis B-related liver disease and should be targeted by educational and screening programs, investigators here have found. Nearly 15% of Asian-Americans tested at a community-based screening program here in 2005 were chronically infected with the hepatitis-B virus (HBV), said Henry Pollack, M.D., of New York University. That's 35 times higher than the rate in the general U.S. population, Dr. Pollack and colleagues wrote in the May 12 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In a comment, the editors of MMWR pointed to similar high rates of HBV infection among Asian-American immigrants in other U.S. cities. The New York finding reflected HBV infection rates in Asian countries where the virus is endemic and from 2.4% to 16% of individuals may be infected, the NYU researchers noted. The study included 925 Asian-Americans living in New York who had never been screened previously for HBV. They ranged in age from 20 to 83 and were roughly evenly divided between the sexes. The majority had been born in China or South Korea, although many other countries were represented, and about half the patients had lived in the United States for more than 10 years. Of these 925 individuals, 137 had chronic HBV infection (14.8%), the study found. In addition, more than half of these individuals (53.6%), showed evidence of resolved HBV infection. None of the 10 study participants born in the United States had chronic HBV infection, the study found. Males had higher rates of infection than females (19.7% versus 8.7%; P<0.01), as did individuals ages 20 to 39, compared with those 40 or older (23.2% versus 9.6%; P<0.01). Asian- Americans living in the United States for less than five years were also more likely to have HBV than those who had lived in this country longer (21.6% versus 13.5%; P<0.01). Prevalence of infection also varied by country of birth, from 21.4% among those born in China, to 4.6% among those born in South Korea, to 4.3% among those born in other Asian countries, the authors said. "These persons likely acquired their infections in their countries of origin, where HBV infection is endemic and infections usually are acquired at birth or during early childhood," said the editors of MMWR in a commentary. The majority of infected participants were successfully referred for medical evaluation and follow-up, they added. Although this study was limited to New York, screening programs in Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and California have reported similar rates of chronic HBV infection (10% to 15%) among Asian immigrants to the United States, the editors said. [em05] The above is a part of whole report. FYI. | 
发表于 2006-6-21 04:31
