Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T16:24:40.800Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prevalence of hepatitis B virus in people with learning disabilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

D. Rajapakse  and
R. N. Ranasinghe
D. Rajapakse*
Affiliation:
Turner Village Hospital, Turner Road, Colchester, Essex CO4 5JP
R. N. Ranasinghe
Affiliation:
Turner Village Hospital, Turner Road, Colchester, Essex CO4 5JP
*
∗Correspondence
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection is thought to be higher in institutions for people with a learning disability than in the general population (Clarke et al, 1984). People with Down's syndrome are reported to be at higher risk than other learning disability groups. The prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (Hbs Ag) in Great Britain is in the order of 1 in 500 of the blood donor adult population (Department of Health, 1980). This rate is lower than those reported from countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. The present study was to identify those residents in an institution for people with a learning disability with a positive response to the test for Hbs Ag.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 20 , Issue 8 , August 1996 , pp. 473
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1996

References

Blumburg, B. S. & Baruch, S. (1979) Sex differences in response to hepatitis B virus. Arthritis and Rheumatism, 22, 1261–1266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, S. V. R., Caul, E. D., Jancar, J., et al (1984). Hepatitis B in seven hospitals for mentally handicapped. Journal of Infection, 8, 34–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Department of Health, Welsh Office, Scottish Home and Health Department (1988) Immunisation Against Infectious Disease, pp. 70–79, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Lohiya, S., Lohiya, A. G. & Caires, S. (1986) Sex difference in response to hepatitis B virus. American Journal of Public Health, 76, 799–802.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tevaluoto-Aarnio, M. (1974) Epidemiology of hepatitis B antigenaemia in an institution for the mentally retarded. Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Disease, 6, 309–313.Google Scholar
Thomson, R. G., James, F. F. W., Tyrer, S. R., et al (1989) Low prevalence of hepatitis B in a mentally handicapped hospital. Lancet, 1, 44–45.Google Scholar
Van Damme, P. & Meheus, A. (1989) Hepatitis B in mental handicap hospitals. Lancet, 1, 840–841.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.