Abstract
World Health Organization has estimated that approximately 2 billion people are infected by hepatitis B globally and about 400 million of these people developed chronic hepatitis B (CHB). CHB is one of the main reasons for the development of fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver-related cause of death. The goal of therapy is to improve patient s quality of life by preventing the progression of disease. The main objective of this study is to establish the proportion of HBsAg positive carriers at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Akershus University Hospital. We included 374 HBsAg positive patients at the out-patient clinic. Furthermore we wanted to describe age distribution, sex distribution, ethnicity, genotype and distribution phases of HBV infection among patients with HBsAg. Finally, we attempted to identify predictors for being inactive carrier of hepatitis B.