The risk of contamination of 487 inmates of 5 boarding schools at northwestern Ukraine with hepatitis B (HB) and hepatitis C (HC) viruses was analyzed and the role of some factors facilitating the spread of these infections among the inmates of such schools was shown. In 28.3 +/- 2.2% of the inmates the presence of HB markers was detected, while these markers occurred only in 7.2 +/- 1.9% of children attending open schools. During the survey of the child population the presence of HB markers was detected in 8.0 +/- 1.1%, which was significantly lower than among the inmates of boarding schools (p
