Hepatitis B prevalence, status and susceptibility of Vietnamese Americans in Houston: Ten years in review

Background: Hepatitis B (HBV) infection has a ten-fold higher prevalence for Vietnamese Americans (VA) than for Caucasian Americans. Houston, Texas has the third largest VA community in the US. Since the late 1990s, there have been some isolated HBV education efforts in this community. A statewide HBV immunization mandate for students entering middle school also started in August 2000. However, no current baseline HBV prevalence and immunization status is available for this population. Objective: To estimate the HBV prevalence, status, and susceptibility of Houston's VA adults in a HBV prevention program. Method: Data was collected through a collaborative community-based HBV project aimed at screening 1000 Asian Americans (263 VA adults). Participants provided blood sample for serological testing and answered a short questionnaire. Results: Serological results indicated that a quarter had been immunized, >50% were immune due to past infection, 11% were susceptible, and 5% were chronic carriers. Adults age 45+ had the largest percentage of infection but lowest vaccination rate. Marriage increased the infection rate but not vaccination rate. Groups with high susceptibility to infection included women, those with private or no health insurance, and those who lived in the United States for 20+ years. Conclusion: While public education campaign and vaccination mandate had a positive effect on HBV control in Houston's VA community, disease prevalence rates in this sample remained higher than for those in the non-Asian community. Traditional protective factors for disease prevention were not observed in this study, which warrants further research and intervention in this population.