2303. Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection and Risk of Herpes Zoster: A Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: No cohort studies have evaluated the effect of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection on the risk of herpes zoster. We investigated the association of HBV infection with the development of herpes zoster. METHODS: We performed a cohort study of 224,691 non-cirrhotic adult men and women free of herpes zoster at baseline who underwent serologic testing for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and were followed annually or biennially for a median of 4.2 years. Incident cases of herpes zoster were ascertained using the Korean Health Insurance and Review Agency (HIRA) database. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for incident herpes zoster according to HBsAg seropositivity status. RESULTS: During 830,073.4 person-years of follow-up, 11,061 cases of incident herpes zoster were identified. HBsAg seropositivity was inversely associated with the development of herpes zoster. After adjustment for possible confounders, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (95% CI) for herpes zoster comparing HBsAg-positive to HBsAg-negative participants was 0.83 (0.75–0.93). CONCLUSION: In a large cohort of Korean adults, HBsAg seropositivity was associated with lower risk of herpes zoster, suggesting that HBV seems to inhibit the reactivation of varicella-zoster virus. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.