New Findings from Tetsuya Kimura and Co-Authors in the Area of Hepatitis B Virus Reported (Analysis of hepatitis B and C virus infections amongst members of the Dental National Health Insurance Society in the Oita Prefecture)

2021 JAN 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Business Daily -- Current study results on DNA Viruses - Hepatitis B Virus have been published. According to news reporting originating from Oita, Japan, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “In Japan, ~3 million individuals are estimated to be infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV). The rates of hepatitis virus infection amongst dentists is higher than that amongst other healthcare workers due to increased exposure to both saliva and blood.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research, “However, an efficient method for the testing of hepatitis virus infections amongst dentists remains to be established. The aim of the present study was to examine the rate of hepatitis virus infection amongst dental healthcare workers (DHWs) by introducing a health checkup that included screening for HBV and HCV infections. A total of 1,834 members of the Dental National Health Insurance Society in the Oita Prefecture, consisting of dentists and other employees, were tested for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), antibodies to HBsAg (anti-HBs) and antibodies to HCV (anti-HCV) during routine medical checkups. Anonymized data, including the age, sex, occupation (dentist or employee), and presence of a hepatitis virus marker, was collected and analyzed. The positive rates of HBsAg, anti-HBs and anti-HCV in the study sample were 0.6, 44.1 and 0.5%, respectively; the positive rates were higher amongst dentists than the employees. Furthermore, the positive rates of HBsAg and anti-HCV increased with age and were higher in subjects aged 50-79 (1.7-2.2%). The positive rate of presence of anti-HBs was significantly higher in the dentists compared with employees (56.4 vs. 39.6%; respectively; p<0.0001). The three factors associated with anti-HB positivity were HBsAg negativity, occupation (dentist) and age (20-29 years) with adjusted odds ratios of 8.29, 2.27 and 1.59, respectively (p <0.05).”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “These results suggest that introducing a hepatitis virus examination during routine health checkups of DHWs may prove useful in identifying infected individuals.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Analysis of hepatitis B and C virus infections amongst members of the Dental National Health Insurance Society in the Oita Prefecture. Biomedical Reports, 2020;14(2):23.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Tetsuya Kimura, Oita Dental Association, Oujishinmachi, Oita 870-0819, Japan. Additional authors for this research include Yumiko Nagao and Hiromichi Nagao.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.3892/br.2020.1399. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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