CURRENT PREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS-A, HEPATITIS-B AND HEPATITIS-C IN A WELL-DEFINED AREA IN RURAL CRETE, GREECE

A seroepidemiological study was carried out in a geographically well-d efined area in rural Crete in order to determine the prevalence of A, B and C hepatitis markers in the local population. Serum samples were obtained from 257 subjects (94 males, 163 females), aged 15 years and over, who visited the primary health care services of the Spill Health Centre between July 1993 and March 1994, and from 164 subjects (83 ma les, 81 females) randomly selected from households in three neighbouri ng villages of the study area. In samples obtained from the SPiIi Heal th Centre, antibodies to hepatitis A virus (anti-HAV) were detected in 234/244 (95.9%) subjects, antibodies to hepatitis B virus core antige n (HBcAb) were detected in 63/257 (24.5%) subjects and antibodies to h epatitis C virus (anti-HCV) were detected in 28/257 (10.9%) subjects. The corresponding figures for those randomly selected from the village s were 135/154 (87.7%), 16/164 (9.8%) and 5/164 (3%) respectively, Hep atitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) was positive in three (1.2%) subjects from the first group, while none of those recruited from the villages were positive for HBsAg. Interestingly, hepatitis markers were closel y associated with age. No subjects under the age of 15 years showed ev idence of prior hepatitis A infection and approximately 20% of those b etween 15 and 44 years of age were also negative. By contrast, practic ally all subjects older than 44 years were anti-HAV positive. Similarl y, the majority of all those who were anti-HCV positive were older sub jects. Seroepidemiology of hepatitis in this well-defined population s eems to be different from other parts of Greece, at least for hepatiti s B and C viruses. There is a very low prevalence of HBsAg and a very high incidence of anti-HCV. Low exposure to HAV, as found in other par ts of the country, was also found in the younger generation in this ru ral area of Crete.