Province of Origin of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen Carriers Among Blood Donors in Port Moresby

Abstract

A paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia in 1972 gave a breakdown of Port Moresby blood donors by HBS Ag carrier status and area of origin. It has lately become possible to test whether such geographical subsamples provide reliable evidence of the carrier status in the home areas, and it appears that, except for the Islands provinces, they do not. Traditional lifestyles conduce to the maintenance and spread of the virus, which is much more prevalent in the provinces than in the capital.