Prevalence of Hepatitis B Virus (hbsag) Among Apparently Healthy Inhabitants of Hildi Adamawa State, Nigeria

Hepatitis B viral infection is a major global health problem which can cause chronic infection and responsible for high risk of death from cirrhosis and liver cancer. This study determines the prevalence of hepatitis B viral infection in apparently healthy population in Hildi. A total of 1,920 participants‟ whole blood was screened for HBsAg using HBsAg strip. Blood sample was collected in-vitro from the subjects direct onto HBsAg stripe, a drop of buffer solution was added onto the blood on the strip and allowed to stay for 15-20 minutes before the result was interpreted. Results obtained showed that 7.1% (137/1920) of the participants were positive for HBsAg and 134 out of the 137 infected participants had no prior knowledge of their status. Females were more infected than males and age group 11-20 years expressed the highest rate of infection followed by age group 21- 30 years. The high prevalence of infection particularly among inhabitant that had no knowledge that they were infected is capable of increasing disease burden in the community. This highlights the need to improve on vaccination, conduct of periodic screening and treatment of infected person.