Risk of Hepatitis B Infections in Olympic Wrestling
Selda Bereket-Yücel 1*
1 Celal Bayar University, Turkey
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: seldabereket{at}hotmail.com.
Accepted 21 January 2007
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Abstract |
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The main purpose of this study was to investigate the
prevalance of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and occult HBV
infection (OC-HBV) in Turkish olympic wrestlers. The
second purpose of this study was to examine the
relationship between HBV DNA values in sweat and blood. A
total of 70 male olympic wrestlers were recruited as the
study sample. As a result of the standard monoclonal
antibody-based hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)
detection, none of the olympic wrestlers carried HBsAg in
this study. On the other hand, according to real time
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for serum HBV DNA
detection in this study, 13% of the wrestlers has OC-HBV
infection. 11% of the participants has HBV DNA in their
sweat. In addition, there was a significant relationship
between HBV DNA values in the blood and sweat of the
wrestlers (r= 0,52, p<0.01). The results proposed that
other than bleeding wounds and mucous membranes, sweating
could be another way of transmitting the HBV infections
in contact sports. The HBV test should be done and each
wrestler should be vaccinated at the beginning of his
career.
Key Words:
Infectious Disease, Occult HBV, Sports, Sweating
