Detection of Hepatitis B virus subgenotype A1 in a Quilombo community from Maranhao, Brazil.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Brazilian population is mainly descendant from European colonizers, Africans and Native Americans. Some Afro-descendants lived in small isolated communities since the slavery period. The epidemiological status of HBV infection in Quilombos communities from northeast of Brazil remains unknown. The aim of this study was to characterize the HBV genotypes circulating inside a Quilombo isolated community from Maranhão State, Brazil.

Methods

Seventy-two samples from Frechal Quilombo community at Maranhão were collected. All serum samples were screened by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). HBsAg positive samples were submitted to DNA extraction and a fragment of 1306 bp partially comprising HBsAg and polymerase

SUBMITTER: Alvarado-Mora MV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3180422 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature