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- Title
Clinical Characteristics of Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Authors
Massoumi, Hatef; Buchheit, Kathleen; Gunturu, Srinivas; Ju-En Thlick; Gaglio, Paul
- Abstract
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a significant, worldwide burden due to it's high prevalence, and risk of complications, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Current literature suggests that African patients with chronic hepatitis B are at higher risk for hepatocellular carcinoma. The exact mechanism for the explanation for this observation is contentious and may be due to higher rates of chronicity, and/or exposure to hepatotoxins including aflatoxin. We sought to report the clinical characteristics of African born immigrants with chronic hepatitis B referred to a liver clinic in New York City. A total of 111 patients were enrolled. 19 patients (17%) had cirrhosis, and 14 patients (13%) had HCC at initial presentation. During the course of follow up, 13 patients (12%) died of complications of HBV, all of them related to HCC. Our case series revealed that a significant proportion of these patients manifested advanced complications of HBV such as cirrhosis or HCC.
- Subjects
AFRICA; SUB-Saharan Africa; NEW York (State); BIRTHPLACES; HEPATITIS B; HEPATITIS viruses; HEPATOCELLULAR carcinoma; IMMIGRANTS; LONGITUDINAL method; QUESTIONNAIRES; SURVEYS; DISEASE prevalence; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; CHRONIC hepatitis B
- Publication
Hepatitis Monthly, 2017, Vol 17, Issue 4, p1
- ISSN
1735-143X
- Publication type
Article