Hepatitis B antibodies in hospital personnel.

Sera from 544 hospital personnel members with different degrees of exposure to the agent of hepatitis B were tested for HB8Ag and anti-HB8 by counterelectrophoresis, radioimmunoassay and passive hemagglutination. The laboratory staff and persons having direct contact with patients exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of anti-HB8 (16.2%) as compared with the other groups: administrative staff (4.4%), healthy persons (4.6%) and blood donors (7.9%). These data prove the relationship between exposure to HB8Ag and anti-HB8 prevalence, more obvious in the laboratory staff handling human serum and plasma specimens (anti-HB8 incidence--25%).