Prevalence of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV Infection in 15 Year and Older Patients Admitted in Hand Surgery Emergency

Similar to some other country prevalence of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, in Iran is considerable. Health care personnel, especially members of surgical teams are at risk for occupational transmission. In this survey we studied prevalence of seropositivity for all those three viruses in admitted patients in hand trauma unit at 15 Khordad hospital. In Tehran and compared the results with other domestic and international reports. From March 2001 to March 2003, 3714 patients who were 15 year and older were operated in this unit and ELISA serologic test were done for all of them. In 126 cases, (3.4%) at least one of the three serologic tests were positive. HBS-Ag in 2%, Anti HCV-Ab in 1.5%, and Anti HIV-Ab in 0.13% of cases were reported as positive. Compared with other studies in many countries which have been performed in emergency or trauma patients, blood donators, or general population prevalence of seropositivity to these viruses were different in our study in 15 Khordad Hospital.