Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) transmission via blood and other body fluids from infected individuals to healthy people has been largely demonstrated. However, in the current literature, there is little information available on the potential role of cerumen in HBV transmission. Cerumen and blood were collected from 70 patients infected with HBV and 70 volunteer healthy people were selected as the control group, and the samples were evaluated by ELISA and Real-time PCR. All the patients proved positive for HBsAg and anti HBc total. Sixty-one of the 70 cerumen samples of cases (82.1) and 5 (7) of controls were positive for HBV DNA with ranges from 1.53 x 10(2) to 2.9 x 10(8) and 1.3 x 10(2) - 2.6 x 10(5)/ml, respectively. In three patients, the level of HBV DNA in cerumen was higher than that in the serums. The patients who were positive for HBeAg showed a higher rate of HBV DNA in the serum and cerumen. The results of this study showed the level of HBV DNA as a probably indicator of high risk transmission factor, which was present in the cerumen of chronic hepatitis B patients in west of Iran.