Prevalence of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Among trauma patients: A study on 27000 trauma patients

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Hepatitis B(HBV),Hepatitis C( HCV),and Human immunodeficiency virus(HIV)in a large trauma center in northeast of Iran.

In a descriptive cross sectional study, 27252 consecutive patients admitted in a trauma hospital in Mashhad, Iran during March 2012 to March 2017 who required surgery for their traumatic injuries were screened for the presence of Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti HCV Ab and anti HIV Ab.

In 926 patients at least one of the serologic tests was positive, showing an incidence of 3.3% seropositivity among study population. HBsAg was positive in 523 patients (1.9%), HCV Ab in 388 (1.4%) and HIV Ab in 15 patients (0.05%) respectively. 19 patients (0.06%) were simultaneously infected by more than one virus.

The results of this study demonstrate that seroprevalence of blood born-pathogens among trauma patients, especially HCV and HIV, are higher than general population and it emphasized that health care workers in trauma centers must adhere to standard precautions to prevent viral transmission.