Pradip Bhaumik1 , Samir Kumar Sil2 , Kalyan Debnath3 , Swatilekha Bhattacharjee4
INTRODUCTION: Hepatitis B is a global health problem. Among the South East Asian countries India is in intermediate zone of prevalence I.e. 2 to 5 %. 1 In the state of Tripura the prevalence of Hepatitis B among hemodialysis patients is 7.3%2 and among voluntary blood donors it is 1.2%. 3 The present study is aimed to assess the prevalence of HBV infection in Tripura at community level in particular among the different ethnic communities prevailing in this region. METHODS: A cross sectional study at community level has been done. Total 6202 samples have been collected from healthy individual above 10 years of age and a 1:4 sampling of household done. Serological marker of HBs Ag was done by ELISA.RESULTS: Prevalence of HbsAg sero-positivity was 3.6% (95%CI 3.14 - 4.06) at community level of Tripura. A higher prevalence was found in males than females which was 4.5% (95%CI 3.77-5.23) & 2.65% (95%CI 2.08 – 3.22) respectively. The prevalence of Hepatitis B was found higher among tribal community than non-tribal community which was 5.3% (95%CI 4.49 – 6.10) and 1.97%(95%CI 1.49 – 2.45) respectively. Among tribal population highest prevalence was observed among Chakma community (11.41%) which was followed by Reang (7.69%), Noatia (6.09%), Jamatia (5.7%), Murasing (5.15%), Tripuri (4.95%), Halam(4.21%), and Lusai (2.7%) respectively. The study shows that HBsAgseropositivity increases with age in community level reaching peak between 61 to 80 years age group I.e. 4.8% which is statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Higher prevalence of Hepatitis B among tribal population is of paramount importance from public health point of view and early intervention by Hepatitis B vaccination will reduce the disease burden among Tribal population in Tripura.
