Background: Greece is a place of settlement for a large number of immigrants, particularly from Albania, which constitute special community groups for public health policies. Objectives: This study was designed to assess the seroprevalence of serological markers for Hepatitis B and C among juvenile immigrants from Albania settled in Greece. Methods: The study population included 504 subjects, 418 males and 86 females, aged 1023 years old who have emigrated from Albania to Pogoniani-Greece and participated voluntarily in vaccination programmes against Hepatitis B. The serum samples were examined with enzyme immune assays for the immunological markers HBsAg, anti-HBc, anti-HBs and anti-HCV. HBsAg positive samples were further tested for IgM anti-HBc, HBeAg and anti-HBe. Results: Among the examined subjects, 40.5% were found positive for anti-HBc, indicating an HBV contamination. Specifically, 11.7% were carriers of HBsAg, whereas 28.8% were negative for HBsAg but positive for anti-HBc. Only 6.5% was positive exclusively for anti-HBs. The rest (53.0%) presented no positive serological markers. Among the HBsAg positive patients, 8.5% were found positive for HBeAg, while 5.1% was positive for IgM anti-HBc. Finally, only 0.6% of the sample presented antibodies against HCV. Conclusion: The examined migratory population is described by a high prevalence of Hepatitis B. Therefore, specific public health measures are necessary. However, no data was found that indicate potential public health dangers regarding hepatitis C. © 2010 Informa Healthcare.

public health and community medicine immigrants Seroprevalence Infectious diseases Epidemiology Hepatitis

immigrant Albania human Young Adult school child Humans Adolescent male Emigrants and Immigrants female Greece prevalence Article major clinical study adult migration serology hepatitis B surface antibody hepatitis C antibody hepatitis B surface antigen virus transmission public health problem Hepatitis C Antibodies Hepatitis B Surface Antigens vaccination hepatitis B seroprevalence Seroepidemiologic Studies virus carrier Hepatitis B Antibodies enzyme immunoassay disease marker hepatitis B core antibody hepatitis B(e) antigen Biological Markers immunoglobulin M hepatitis C Child