[Seroepidemiological study of hepatitis B virus infection in a university community].

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is actually a major problem worldwide, due mainly to the high incidence of chronic and acute infection it causes. In order to determinate the HBV incidence in the School of Bioanalysis of the University of Los Andes, we studied the presence of the HBV markers: surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-Core (a-HBc) by using an ELISA method in randomly selected population of 167 subjects composed by 135 students of the last semester, 12 professors, and 20 employees from the Biochemistry, Haematology, and Immunology's areas. Of all the examined samples, 19 (11.4%) were positive for any of the markers, 3 (1.8%) for HBsAg and 16 (10.2%) for a-HBc. Only one sample was positive for both markers. The posivity was solely observed in the students group were 9.1% were sexually active, 16.7% received blood transfusions and 18.2% suffered early hepatitis.