Characterization of chronic hepatitis B cases among foreign-born persons in six population-based surveillance sites, United States 2001-2010.

National surveys indicate prevalence of chronic hepatitis B among foreign-born persons in the USA is 5.6 times higher than US-born. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded chronic hepatitis B surveillance in Emerging Infections Program sites. A case was any chronic hepatitis B case reported to participating sites from 2001 to 2010. Sites collected standardized demographic data on all cases. We tested differences between foreign- and US-born cases by age, sex, and pregnancy using Chi square tests. We examined trends by birth country during 2005-2010. Of 36,008 cases, 21,355 (59.3%) reported birth in a country outside the USA, 2,323 (6.5%) were US-born. Compared with US-born, foreign-born persons were 9.2 times more frequent among chronic hepatitis B cases. Foreign-born were more frequently female, younger, ever pregnant, and born in China. Percentages of cases among foreign-born persons were constant during 2005-2010. Our findings support information from US surveillance for Hepatitis B screening and vaccination efforts.

Citation

Stephen J Liu, Kashif Iqbal, Sue Shallow, Suzanne Speers, Elena Rizzo, Kristin Gerard, Tasha Poissant, R Monina Klevens. Characterization of chronic hepatitis B cases among foreign-born persons in six population-based surveillance sites, United States 2001-2010. Journal of immigrant and minority health. 2015 Feb;17(1):7-12

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PMID: 24705737

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