The Deccan Chronicle 30.08.2010
Hepatitis rises in urban areasChennai, Aug. 29: A new method of analysing the presence of Hepatitis B has thrown up surprising results. The deadly infection of the liver that affects 3.7 per cent Indians is increasingly afflicting the urban population in the country as opposed to the tribal communities traditionally considered to harbour higher rates of the disease.
The study, conducted by the department of paediatrics at St. Stephen’s Hospital in New Delhi and published in the Indian Journal of Paediatrics, has suggested that while compiling various research data on Hepatitis B, it is more accurate to take into account the population where the sample was drawn from, rather than the sample size itself.
“In remote tribal pockets in the Andaman, for example, where the total population is only 4,000, the analysis would show a very high prevalence of Hepatitis B, if we put together studies conducted on the same group during different points of time, where the total number of subjects in all the studies, would add up, to say, 40,000,” explains Puliyel Jacob, one of the authors of the study.
“This way, large studies from smaller populations get undue weightage,” he points out.
