PONE-D-22-06352Seroprevalence and factors associated with hepatitis B virus infection in incarcerated population from southern BrazilPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Ferreto,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jul 20 2022 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Jason T. Blackard, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

This is a cross-sectional study of HBV in incarcerated persons in southern Brazil.

Prison populations are poorly studied but likely contribute a significant burden of HBV; thus, studies such as this are relevant.  The overall prevalence was high at 11.9%, although other findings are expected, and the methods are quite standard for an epidemiologic study.

There are multiple awkward phrases.  The manuscript should be reviewed carefully by a native English speaker and/or a professional editing service.

Line 136:  AIDS should be listed as HIV.

Line 158:  does “having already had hepatitis” mean that they knew they had HBV already, had HBV previously and clearly it and now have HBV again, or had HCV previously/currently?  The meaning must be clarified here and elsewhere in the manuscript.

For Tables 1 and 2:  How was knowledge about HIV or hepatitis assesses?  No information is provided in the methods.

In Tables 1 and 2:  what does “ever had hepatitis” refer to?  HBV or HCV or both?

How was HBV vaccination status determined?

Limitations are not listed but include the lack of HBV DNA testing and lack of HBeAg testing.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: - The authors should have a look at the statistical analysis package versions that they have included, they differ in the same paragraph Line 145 and Line 148.

- Furthermore, Table 1: The authors should indicate that they have reported percentages

Reviewer #2: The authors determined HBsAg, anti-HBs and total anti-HBc in incarcerated individuals in three settings with the intention of determining the seroprevalence and risk factors. The data presented however does not seem complete because only HBsAg seroprevalence is reported but there is no comment on anti-HBs and total anti-HBc. Also, numbers enrolled in the three sites needs a bit more detail as to how they were enrolled (What was the total number in each setting). The outcomes of the statistical analysis in the tales 1 is confusing as a p-value has been assigned to each column. Were the three columns being compared? Don't we need just one p-value? Hepatitis B infection seems to be defined as the presence of HBsAg so this should reflect in the entire manuscript and must be distinguished from the disease e.g. lines 199-120. The authors must make reference to the tables as they describe the results.

The authors must also shorten the discussion

Below are a few minor comments:

1. Line 81: sentence ends with "and"

2. Line 98: delete sentence beginning with "it is.........."

3. Line 108 following: just make reference to the study (delete the title quoted)

4. Line 133: what intervention are the authors referring to?

5. Line 138: was it serum or plasma or both?

6. Lines 140-143: the authors need to present the name of the assay, the company, the city and country in which it was manufactured

7. Line 141: which lab are the authors refering to? Either they delete or provide the name of the lab.

8. Line 148: Provide the company, the city and country in which it was manufactured

9. Line 262: Delete, "At this juncture"

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If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PONE-D-22-06352R1Seroprevalence and factors associated with hepatitis B virus infection in the incarcerated population from southern BrazilPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Defante Ferreto,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please make the minor revisions suggested by both reviewers prior to acceptance of your manuscript.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Dec 03 2022 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Jason T. Blackard, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments:

Please make the minor revisions suggested by both reviewers prior to acceptance of your manuscript.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors have satisfactorily addressed all the reviewer's comments and no further revisions. The editor should correct the typographical error on the abstract -Line 10 because it looks like a word is missing. Otherwise, the manuscript should be accepted for publication in PlosOne.

Reviewer #2: Few concerns:

1. The introduction is too long. Lines 90-115, 116-127 may be shortened and portions used while discussing the results. For examples, lines 260 to 266 seems to be a repetition of part of 104-115.

2. I think a better title will be "exposure" not "infection" with HBV. anyone with anti-HBs has recovered so cannot be infected. (see also line 182; antigens were also tested for)

3. Line 250 HBV includes virus (saying HBV virus is therefore a repetition)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Professor Kwamena William Sagoe

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Seroprevalence and factors associated with hepatitis B virus exposure in the incarcerated population from southern Brazil

PONE-D-22-06352R2

Dear Dr. Ferreto,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Jason T. Blackard, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

None

Reviewers' comments:

None