The health requirements of pygmies is poorly understood because of the
ir continued isolation from the other tribes in Central Africa. This s
tudy was undertaken among the Baka pygmies of the Eastern Province of
Cameroon to generate basic health data among them. A total of 141 adul
ts (18-45 years) were tested for the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsA
g), antibody to the surface antigen (anti-HBs), antibody to the core a
ntigen (anti-HBc) and antibody to the hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV). Al
l HBsAg-positive sera were tested for the hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg
) and antibody (anti-HBe). The presence of antibodies to the hepatitis
D virus was determined in most of the anti-Hbs-positive sera, and som
e of the HBsAg-positive sera. In addition to these, previous infection
with syphilis, measles, HIV 1/2 and HTLV were determined by looking f
or the specific antibodies. We found HBsAg in 14.2% (20/141), anti-HBs
in 93.6% (132/141), anti-HBs in 52.2% (73/140), anti-HCV in 7.9% (11/
139, measles antibody in 99.3% (139/140), antibody to Treponema pallid
um in 13.4% (18/134), antibody to HTLV-1 in 10.9% (15/138) and antibod
y to HIV-1 in 0.7% (1/140) of the sera tested.