Objective:
Epidemiological investigation of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), cause of high morbidity and mortalite, is important to define the spread and the protection of the viruses. The aim of the study was to determine the seroprevalance of HBV, HCV and HIV in North Cyprus and investigate the demographic information of the cases.
Materials and Methods:
The study group included the civillian-soldiers-public people, blood donors, tourists and people coming for education and/or work to North Cyprus and have to do these tests juridically and applied to do all and/or any two and/or any one of HBsAg, anti-HCV and anti-HIV tests between 2010-2014 in Near East University Hospital Microbiology Laboratory. HBsAg, anti-HCV and anti-HIV tests were determined chemiluminesans immunoassay (CEIA) (Architect i2000 SR, Abbott, USA) according to the manufactures. The cut off values of the tests were accepted (S/CO) ≤1 as positive.
Results:
Twenty-five thousond four hundred and forty-two people with 113 different nationality were analyzed in this study. Seventeen thousand five hundred and twenty-nine (68.9%) were male, 7.913 (31.1%) were women and the mean age was 34.32±14.24 (separation: 0-102). Out of 25.068 HBV cases, 339 (1.35%) were positive, this ratio was 31/24.973 (0.1%) and 9/24.044 (0.04%) for HCV and HIV respectively. Seroprevalances of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus citizens were obtained as HBsAg 0.8%, anti-HCV 0.014% and anti-HIV 0.03%. There is no statistically significant differences in terms of sex in HBsAg and HCV seropositivity but, all anti-HIV positive individuals were male (100%, n=9).
Conclusion:
The study results showed that Northern Cyprus with 300.000 population is in low endemicity countries according to HBV, HCV and HIV seroprevalance. This is because of widespreading hepatitis B vaccination programs, conscious society and legal obligation of outlanding of Turkish/foreign national HBV, HCV and HIV positive persons.
Keywords: HBV, HCV, HIV, epidemiology, Northern Cyprus