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Hepatitis B Surveillance in South Australia

Hepatitis B Medical Notification 01/01/04 - 31/03/04

During the first quarter of 2004, 52 hepatitis B medical notifications were received.  Of these, only one was an acute clinical case of hepatitis B infection  (Table 3.1).  A further 11 were reports of chronic carriers of greater than twelve months duration, who had been previously diagnosed but not notified.  Reports of antigen positivity of uncertain duration accounted for 40 cases (Table 3.2).

The acute infection was in a male in the 30-39 year old age group with injecting drug use identified as the exposure category.

Of the 40 reports of antigen positivity of uncertain duration, 27 tested surface antigen positive for the first time this quarter, one had a previous negative test and the testing history was unknown for the remaining 12 cases (Table 3.2).   Among the 27 individuals who tested surface antigen positive for the first time, but were not acute cases, the racial origin of 12 (44%) was reported as Asian (Table 3.3).

The number of hepatitis B surface antigen tests performed by laboratories for this quarter is shown in Table 3.4

Table 3.1  Hepatitis B infection, 01/01/04 - 31/03/04.
                Case category by sex.

Table 3.2 Hepatitis B cases of uncertain duration, 01/01/04 - 31/03/04. 
                Previous test by sex.

Table 3.3  Individuals who tested hepatitis B surface antigen positive
               for the first time, 01/01/04 - 31/03/04.  Race test by sex.

 Table 3.4 Summary of hepatitis B surface antigen tests, 
                 01/01/04 - 31/03/04.  Laboratory by sex.

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