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Article: Hepatitis B infection, Eastern India.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
- Article from:
- Emerging Infectious Diseases
- Article date:
- July 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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To the Editor: The National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (ICMR), Kolkata, India, conducted a serologic study in July 2003 to determine the rate of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection of brothel-based commercial sex workers. These study participants worked in the South-24 Parganas district of West Bengal, one of the eastern states of India. Routine immunization to prevent HBV infection is not a practice in India, and chronic HBV infection is endemic (1). The nature of their work makes commercial sex workers more vulnerable to HBV infection, which could accelerate the infection's spread into the general community, particularly in areas with low literacy rates and ...