Abstract

Infections of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are considered important health problems worldwide. In this study, we assessed results of hepatitis B surface antigen (HbsAg), anti-HCV and anti-HIV tests which were ordered to patients before any surgical intervention in a university hospital, in Tokat, Turkey. All patients who were planned to have surgical intervention and had tests for HBsAg, anti-HCV and anti-HIV in year 2009 and 2010, were included in this retrospective study. Hospital records of patients were examined and 3794 subjects were included in the study. HBsAg and anti-HCV prevalences were found to be 3.4% (128/3782) and 2.2% (85/3736), respectively while no patient was positive for anti-HIV. It was found that the risk of HBsAg positivity was 2.07 times higher in males versus females; the HBsAg prevalence increased as patients became older and it was lowest in patients ≤29 years whereas highest in the age group of 60-69 years. Anti-HCV positivity was most prevalent in the age group of 60-69 years as well. Conclusively, it seems that our region has moderate endemicity for HBV and HCV infections, thus preoperative screening may provide us to detect silent hepatitis patients, but  doing anti-HIV test is unnecessary before surgical intervention in our country.

Key words: Hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, prevalence, vaccination.