Seroprevalence of chronic hepatitis B virus infection among Taiwanese human immunodeficiency virus type 1-positive persons in the era of nationwide hepatitis B vaccination

Objectives: We aimed to assess the impact of nationwide hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination program on the seroprevalence of HBV infection among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive persons in a country where most HBV exposure occurs during the perinatal period or in early childhood.Methods: Data on HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-HBV surface (anti-HBs), anti-HBV core (anti-HBc), and anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) antibody were retrospectively collected from 3,164 HIV-positive and 2,594 HIV-negative persons between 2004 and 2007. Comparisons of serological markers of HBV and HCV were made between HIV-positive and -negative adults born before and after the implementation of the HBV vaccination program in Taiwan in July 1984.Results: Compared with HIV-negative persons, the adjusted odds ratio for HBsAg seropositivity was 1.100 (95% confidence interval, 0.921-1.315) among HIV-positive persons. Although the seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibody remained similar between HIV-positive persons born before and those born after 1984, the seroprevalence of HBsAg declined from 20.3 to 3.3% in HIV-positive persons (P=0.001) and from 15.5 to 8.5% in HIV-negative persons (P=0.001). Despite the high seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibody (97.1%) in HIV-positive injecting drug users (IDUs), there was no statistically significant difference in the seroprevalence of HBsAg (5.6% vs. 8.5%, P0.75) or anti-HBc antibody (40.7% vs. 27.9%, P0.14) between HIV-positive IDUs and HIV-negative persons who were born after 1984.Conclusions: Our study showed a significant decline of seroprevalence of HBV infection among both HIV-negative and -positive persons who were born in the era of the nationwide HBV vaccination in Taiwan.