The inhabitants of Andaman Islands are the most hepatitis B surface antigen positive people in the country, to be followed by the population of North East India, claims Dr M K Saha, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED). While the percentage of hepatitis B positive people in the islands was found to be 20-23 per cent of total population, it was five-six per cent among the North Eastern regions of the country, he said.

Disclosing this at the 11th Round Table Conference on "Hepatitis B and Co-infections" organized by the Ranbaxy Science Foundation here on Tuesday, Dr Saha said that the observations were based on various individual studies conducted by Indian scientists on the subject. "Of the 1,266 samples taken from Andaman, 23.3 per cent proved HBV positive," he said.

Speaking on "The prevalence of HBV and co-infections in India," he said that 70-100 per cent of Andaman HBV positive persons have a lifetime risk of developing serious liver ailments, including cancer. The lifetime risk is 60-80 per cent among the HBV positives of North East and 20-60 per cent among others in the country, he said.

According to Dr Saha, 40-50 million people in the country carry HBV. About 12 million of them are HbeAg and are likely to spread the virus for newer infections, he said. However, he agreed that there is no accurate data on the prevalence of the virus and what ever exists are limited and conflicting.

Prof Mark Thursz, Imperial College of School of Medicine, London, in his speech on the "Recent advances in biology of HBV" pointed out that the scientific community is yet to identify the exact relationship between cancer and hepatitis B virus. "However we feel that HBV triggers the activation of growth related genes and inhibition of tumour suppressors and DNA repair mechanisms", he said. It activates the replication of co-infecting viruses also, he added.

Dr S K Sarin of G B Pant Hospital, the coordinator and moderator of the programme said that the entire discussions would be focused on finding the exact threat the infection poses to public health in the country.

The one-day conference is discussing issues related with laboratory diagnosis and natural history, immunology and pathology, clinical aspects of HBV and co-infections, prevention and immunization, safe blood, and experimental approached to viral infections of liver.

Ranbaxy Research Foundation is a non-profitable organization promoted by Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. Started in 1985, it aims at giving impetus to research activity and help in reviving India's great scientific tradition. The Foundation has instituted Ranbaxy Research Awards to recognize original outstanding contributions in the fields of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The Foundation operates through interest income derived from a corpus fund provided by Ranbaxy and it has no links with the commercial activities of the company.