gms | German Medical Science

50. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie (gmds)
12. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Epidemiologie (dae)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie
Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Epidemiologie

12. bis 15.09.2005, Freiburg im Breisgau

HbsAg Prevalence in Germany: Impact of Immigration

Meeting Abstract

  • Alexander Krämer - School of Public Health, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld
  • Tanja Marschall - School of Public Health, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld
  • Luise Prüfer-Krämer - Medical Practice for Internal and Tropical Medicine, Bielefeld
  • Rafael Mikolajczyk - School of Public Health, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld
  • Mirjam Kretzschmar - Department for Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, RIVM, Bilthoven

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie. Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Epidemiologie. 50. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie (gmds), 12. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Epidemiologie. Freiburg im Breisgau, 12.-15.09.2005. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2005. Doc05gmds581

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/gmds2005/05gmds066.shtml

Published: September 8, 2005

© 2005 Krämer et al.
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Outline

Text

Objective

Immigration from countries with intermediate to high HbsAg prevalence could contribute substantially to the incidence and prevalence of hepatitis B in Germany. By the end of 2003, 7.3 million foreign citizens and 3.2 million migrants from the former USSR and Poland with German roots, the “Aussiedler”, lived in Germany. The aim of the study was to determine the HBsAg prevalence in adult foreign citizens and “Aussiedler” in comparison to the adult German population.

Methods

According to their country of origin adult foreign citizens and “Aussiedler” were categorized into groups with low, intermediate or high HbsAg prevalence using data from the WHO. The number of chronic HBsAg carriers for the different population groups was then calculated.

Results

84% of the adult migrant population in Germany migrated from countries with intermediate and high HBsAg endemicity. We calculated 503.040 HBsAg carriers in Germany for the year 2003. 42% account to people with migratory background, who in contrast represent only 12.7% of the whole adult population. The risk for being chronically infected with HBsAg is 7.1 (4.8-13.2) for the Aussiedler and 4.3 (3.0-8.1) times higher for foreign citizens compared to the German population.

Conclusion

Due to these remarkable differences in prevalence it is important to consider migrants and their cIose contacts adequately in vaccinations, HBsAg screening programmes in pregnant women and treatments for chronic hepatitis B. To understand the impact of migration on the population dynamics of hepatitis B the country of birth should be included into the reporting of acute hepatitis B cases.