An article published in the June 5 issue of CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reports that 5.7 percent of refugees coming to the U.S. are chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and 12 percent have resolved infections.
The study focused on 5,045 refugees from Iraq, Bhutan and Burma (from Myanmar) who were screened for HBV after they settled in New York, Minnesota, Philadelphia and New Haven between 2006 and 2011.
Refugees from Burma made up the bulk of resettled refugees who were screened and had the highest rate of current HBV infection--on average 9.4 percent were infected. HBV infection rates among Iraqis and Bhutanese were less than 1 percent.
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