Poulin C, Gyorkos T, Joseph L, Schlech W, Lee S
Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, National Health and Welfare, Ottawa.
Can J Public Health. 1992 Mar-Apr;83(2):102-5.
An epidemic of hepatitis B occurring in a rural area of Nova Scotia in 1988 and 1989 was investigated. This epidemic identified injection drug use (IDU) as the major determinant of transmission and was the first highly visible indication of IDU in rural Nova Scotia. Contact-tracing was used to identify 186 injection drug users (IDUs), of whom 153 (82%) were interviewed. Of 133 (72%) IDUs who underwent serological testing, 78 had serological evidence of hepatitis B infection. Using epidemiological criteria, 57 IDUs formed a cluster of hepatitis B infections. Using logistic regression techniques, age (O.R. = 1.1), the total number of IDU-contacts named (O.R. = 1.1), and the number of hepatitis B seropositive IDU-contacts named (O.R. = 1.3), were identified as risk factors predictive of an IDU being a cluster case. The characterization of this epidemic may be useful as a model for the spread of hepatitis B and other viral infections among IDUs in rural areas.
对1988年和1989年新斯科舍省农村地区发生的乙型肝炎疫情进行了调查。此次疫情确定注射吸毒是传播的主要决定因素，并且是新斯科舍省农村地区注射吸毒首次引起高度关注的迹象。通过接触者追踪确定了186名注射吸毒者，其中153人（82%）接受了访谈。在接受血清学检测的133名（72%）注射吸毒者中，78人有乙型肝炎感染的血清学证据。根据流行病学标准，57名注射吸毒者构成了一个乙型肝炎感染群。采用逻辑回归技术，年龄（比值比=1.1）、提及的注射吸毒接触者总数（比值比=1.1）以及提及的乙型肝炎血清学阳性注射吸毒接触者数量（比值比=1.3）被确定为预测注射吸毒者成为聚集性病例的危险因素。此次疫情的特征描述可能有助于作为农村地区注射吸毒者中乙型肝炎和其他病毒感染传播的模型。
