Introduction: Immigration is an unstoppable process. Immigrants may have diseases that are more prevalent in their countries of origin than in Spain, such as viral hepatitis. Methods: In this review, we recovered a updates available data on epidemiology of viral hepatitis in immigrants from the publications of Spanish and foreign authors in PubMed. Results: There are describing outbreaks of hepatitis A arising in the immigrant population. The prevalence of hepatitis B in sub-Saharan Africa immigrant and from Asia is greater than that of the native population. The prevalence of chronic hepatitis C in the immigrant population from Southern Asia and Eastern Europe is also the largest of the Spanish population without risk factors. The chronic hepatitis B and C are associated with high risk of progression to cirrhosis and liver cancer. There is a little information about the prevalence of infection with hepatitis D virus in the immigrant population in Spain. The prevalence of antibodies against hepatitis E virus in the immigrant population is 5% higher than found in native. Conclusion: The epidemiology of hepatitis in Spain has been changed because of immigrant population.

Hepatitis A virus immigrants Viral hepatitis Migrants Adoption Hepatitis B virus Hepatitis C virus

hepatitis E antibody delta agent hepatitis immigrant chronic hepatitis hepatitis B prevalence Article virus hepatitis disease course human hepatitis A hepatitis C