Original work ACTA.FAC.MED.NAISS. 1998; 15(1), 36-40

SOME OF THE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL FEATURES OF VIRAL HEPATITIS IN NIŠ
D. Mihajlović, Ž. Bošković, J. Petrović, S. Kostić

Displayed in the paper are some of the epidemiological characteristics of viral hepatitis in the last five years (1992-1996) ţn the region of Niš.
Medical documentation was provided by the department of epidemiology, Health Care Centre, Niš, and processed according to the descriptive and analytic method.
During the period of observation, 763 cases of viral hepatitis were registered: type B - 28 %, type A - 23 %, type C - 21 %, non-A non-B type -1 %, while the type of icterus was not laboratory identified on 27 % of the cases.
Thirty five epidemics were registered, with 3141 exposed individuals,148 diseased, and 72 hospitalized. Most of the epidemics (71 %) were small family epidemics.
Viral hepatitis type A mostly affects school children (7-19 years old), with the morbidity in the range of 8-17%ooo, except in epţdemic years.
Viral hepatitis B becomes a significant medical problem in our region, since there is a rising morbidity18,9-22,6%ooo. Most frequently affected are younger mdividuals (20-29 years, with 22%), and the case is the same with viral hepatitis C, with 25 % of the affected in the mentioned age group. Individuals are most commonly infected during an "open" intervention in earlier periods, during,dialysis m unvaccinated nephrologic patients, and during intravenous drug abuse. Viral hepatitţs C morbiditu is also increasing, with 23,8-33,9%ooo.
It may well be concluded that the epidemiological picture of viral hepatitis A does not change markedly, while viral hepatitis types B and C will certainly be a growţng problem in the future, on account of the hazardous behaviour of certain groups of people (drug abuse, promiscuous behaviour etc).

Key words: viral hepatitis type A, type B, type C, type non-A non-B epidemiology, hepatitis virosis