730 HUMAN GENETIC VARIANTS LINKED TO CHRONIC HEPATITIS B ARE ASSOCIATED WITH EXPRESSION OF HLA-DPA1 AND HLA-DPB1

prevalence and the patterns of HBV infection in a large cohort of immigrants in Rome. Methods: Between August 2008 and July 2009, 1203 consecutive patients were visited at our Department (68.2% female, 32.8% male, mean age 30 years). 58.78% were from Africa, 22.04% from Asia, 13.06% from Eastern-Europe and 6.12% from South-America. A screening form with demographic, clinical and laboratory data was collected for each HBsAg-positive patient, in order to identify the patterns of HBV infection, to optimize their management and treatment and to observe their evolution over time. Results: The prevalence of HBsAg-positive patients was 16.5% (199/1203). 71.44% of these subjects were from Africa, 16.66% from Eastern-Europe, 9.52% from Asia and 2.38% from South-America. Mean age was 27 years (61.9% male, 38.1% female). HBeAg was positive in 373 patients (30.9%). Respectively 8.7% and 15% of HBV infected immigrants were co-infected with HCV and HDV. The diagnostic categories assigned were: inactive carrier state 58.7%, chronic hepatitis B (CHB) 31.6% and HBV-related cirrhosis 9.7%. Conclusions: Chronic infection with HBV is an important health issue in immigrated patients, partly as a result of absence of vaccine prophylaxis in many countries. Although universal vaccination has dramatically reduced the incidence of HBV in Italy, there is a risk of a rise in HBV infections in our country, as result of the increase of imported cases through immigration from highly endemic countries. Another alarming finding of this study is the high prevalence of anti-HDV antibodies in immigrants. This is a particularly serious issue because co-infection with HDV has been shown to accelerate the progression to cirrhosis, and rates of response to anti-viral treatment are lower than in mono-infected patients.