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Prevalence of hepatitis B virus in people with learning disabilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

D. Rajapakse  and
R. N. Ranasinghe
D. Rajapakse*
Affiliation:
Turner Village Hospital, Turner Road, Colchester, Essex CO4 5JP
R. N. Ranasinghe
Affiliation:
Turner Village Hospital, Turner Road, Colchester, Essex CO4 5JP
*
∗Correspondence
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The prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection is thought to be higher in institutions for people with a learning disability than in the general population (Clarke et al, 1984). People with Down's syndrome are reported to be at higher risk than other learning disability groups. The prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (Hbs Ag) in Great Britain is in the order of 1 in 500 of the blood donor adult population (Department of Health, 1980). This rate is lower than those reported from countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. The present study was to identify those residents in an institution for people with a learning disability with a positive response to the test for Hbs Ag.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 20 , Issue 8 , August 1996 , pp. 473
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1996

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