[Prevalence of hepatitis B markers in non-hospital health personnel].

Through a hepatitis B prophylaxis campaign, vaccination and serological study was offered to 316 nonhospital health personnel of the Health Area of Gandia (Valencia). 117 people volunteered (37%); among them, nurses showed the highest participation (45.8%) in comparison with doctors, nursing auxiliaries and non-technical personnel (p less than 0.05). In 22 cases a positive marker could be proved; therefore, total prevalence (18.8%) was significantly higher than that of the control group, which was 6.8% (p less than 0.01). This prevalence is compared with other groups of hospital and nonhospital personnel, and the convenience of new studies and the recommendation of active prophylaxis for this subset of health workers are discussed.