Epidemiological Study on Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Taiwan

對於0至70歲以上的無症狀帶有B型肝炎病毒表面抗原（簡稱S抗原）1 ,354名之血清 及36名新生兒之臍帶血清以同位素分析法檢驗B型肝炎病毒之S抗原，其抗體（S抗體 ）及核心抗體（C抗體），結果1歲以下之嬰兒S抗原及C抗體陽性率各高至14.6%及16. 6%，而S抗體為4.2%。2至4歲之間S抗原及C抗體陽性率高至35.4%。以後C抗體陽性率 不斷的繼續上昇，在40~49達到88%，顯示在臺國人之B型肝炎病毒感染之盛行。相反 的S抗原陽性率減少，5至9歲間變成20.0%，以後繼續保持20 ~17%至30~39歲，但其後 漸漸減少，50~59歲後降至8.6%。S抗體陽性率15歲以後開始隨C抗體陽性率之上昇而 上昇，於50~59歲昇至77.9%，以後不變，其與C抗體陽性率間之相差約與S抗原陽性率 相近。 e抗原在無症狀S抗原帶原者296名中之陽性率為31.3%，在20歲以前高達70%以 上。孕婦761名中S抗原陽性率為16.7%，其中85名帶原孕婦之e抗原陽性率為42.3%， 這些事實才是使中國人繼續發生高度慢性S抗原帶原率之主因。 The determination of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), its antibody (anti-HBs) and antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) were performed on sera from 1,354 healthy persons aged 0 to over 70 years and 36 cord blood specimens using radioimmunoassay. The positive rate of HBsAg was 14.6% accompanied with positive rate of anti-HBc in 16.6% but anti-HBs in only 4 .2% between 0-1 year of age. Then the positive rates of both HBsAg and anti-HBc went u to 35.7% between 2-4 years of age. Thereafter the positive rate of anti-HBc continued to increase steadily up to over 88% after 40 years of age. On the contrary, the positive rate of HBsAg dropped to 20.0% between 5-9 years of age, then remained to be over 17% before 40 years of age and thereafter decreased gradztally down to 8.6% in the eighth decade . After 10-14 years of age, the differences of positive rates between anti -HBc and anti-HBs by age nearly equal to the positive rates of HBsAg in every age group. In Taiwan, the number of HBsAg carriers is estimated to be 2.9 millions. The hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive rate in 296 asymptomatic carriers of HBsAg was as high as 31.1% with very high rate of 74.4% and 69.5% in the first and second decades respectively. Among 761 pregnant women HBsAg was positive in 16.7%, and among 85 cases out of those HBsAg -positives HBeAg was positive in 42.3%; the high prevalence rate of HBsAg-and HBeAg-positives in pregnant women is the most important contributing factor of the high carrier rate of HBsAg in Chinese.