The prevalence of hepatitis B infection in adults in England and Wales

Cost effectiveness analyses of alternative hepatitis B vaccination programm es in England and Wales require a robust estimate of the lifetime risk of c arriage. To this end, we report the prevalence of infection in 3781 anonymi zed individuals aged 15-44 years whose sera were submitted in 1996 to 16 mi crobiology laboratories in England and Wales. One hundred and forty-six ind ividuals (3.9 %) were confirmed as anti HBc positive, including 14 chronic carriers (0.37 %). The prevalence of infection and carriage was higher in s amples collected in London and increased with age. No increased risk of inf ection was seen in sera from genito-urinary (GUM) clinics. Only 15 sera pos itive for hepatitis B were also positive for hepatitis C. Our results confi rm the low prevalence of hepatitis B in England and Wales, are consistent w ith previous estimates of carriage and suggest that many infections were ac quired while resident outside the UK. Future prevalence studies should dete rmine the country of birth and other risk factors for each individual in or der to confirm these findings.