Hepatitis B virus prevalence in three university students in Timor-Leste

Abstract

Hepatitis B is a deadly and contagious disease that knows no age,both children, adults and the elderly. Timor-Leste is one of the newly independent countries within 20 years, however, in terms of infectious diseases, one of which is hepatitis B, in this youngest country it has been categorized with a high endemicity of  8.5%- 12.4% (Silva, 2017). Thus, it is necessary to anticipate so that the prevalence of hepatitis B does not continue to rise, and immediately take early prevention for the younger generation in the country of Timor-Leste, therefore one way is to carry out early detection of hepatitis B in students with the aim of knowing the presence or absence of infection. hepatitis B virus in a person's body. Thus, it can provide recommendations to the government to prevent it by vaccinating all future generations. The main reason for early detection of medical and health science students at the three universities is to prevent horizontal transmission of the hepatitis B virus in Timor-Leste. This study aims to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection and risk factors for hepatitis B virus infection in students of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences from three universities in Timor-Leste.