Seroprevalence and transmission of Hepatitis B virus among delivering women and their new born in selected health facilities, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

BMC Research Notes, Dec 2014

Background Hepatitis B Virus is a major public health problem worldwide. In 2012 alone, over 350 million chronic carriers and 1. 2 million annual deaths were occurred. Hepatitis B Virus causes 60 to 80% of the world’s primary liver cancer and nearly 90% infants infected due to vertical transmission are at higher risk of developing chronic liver disease and cancer. Hence determining the burden of maternal and neonatal Hepatitis B Virus infection is a priority. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted from July – September 2012 at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College and Selam Health Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Blood samples from delivering mothers (n = 265) and their corresponding cords (n = 265) were collected. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect data. Hepatitis B Virus surface antigen was detected using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Frequency analysis and logistic regression test was used to identify the potential risk factors associated with Hepatitis B Virus positivity using SPSS Version -15. Results A total of 265 delivering women with the mean age of 25.8 years were enrolled in the study. Of these delivering women, 8 (3.0%) of mothers were positive for Hepatitis B Virus surface antigen, whereas 6 (2.3%) of cord bloods were positives with 75% concordance rate of exposed infants with sero-positive mothers. However, only one maternal positive case was observed for Hepatitis B e Ag test. Only 11% of the mothers know their Hepatitis B Virus status. Of the total mothers assessed for possible risk factors, 69 (26%) had only one type, while 161 (60.8%) had multiple exposure factors such as ear pricing, history of tribal marks, abortion, multiple-sexual partner and history of surgical procedures experienced from high to low frequency. The remaining 35 (13.2%) of the participants had not experienced possible risk factors. Conclusion Though the maternal positivity rate was low, the rate of positivity in cord bloods was almost equal to those infected mothers. Therefore, screening of pregnant mothers and vaccination of infants could help to reduce the transmission. To minimize the higher overall risk exposure status of mothers, increasing awareness and intensive public health education is also recommended.

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Seroprevalence and transmission of Hepatitis B virus among delivering women and their new born in selected health facilities, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

BMC Research Notes Seroprevalence and transmission of Hepatitis B virus among delivering women and their new born in selected health facilities, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a cross sectional study Dessie Tegegne 0 Kassu Desta 2 Belete Tegbaru 1 Tesfaye Tilahun 1 0 Department of Biomedical Science, College of Health Sciences, Samara University , Samara , Ethiopia 1 Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI) , Addis Ababa , Ethiopia 2 Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, School of Allied Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University , Addis Ababa , Ethiopia Background: Hepatitis B Virus is a major public health problem worldwide. In 2012 alone, over 350 million chronic carriers and 1. 2 million annual deaths were occurred. Hepatitis B Virus causes 60 to 80% of the world's primary liver cancer and nearly 90% infants infected due to vertical transmission are at higher risk of developing chronic liver disease and cancer. Hence determining the burden of maternal and neonatal Hepatitis B Virus infection is a priority. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from July - September 2012 at St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College and Selam Health Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Blood samples from delivering mothers (n = 265) and their corresponding cords (n = 265) were collected. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect data. Hepatitis B Virus surface antigen was detected using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Frequency analysis and logistic regression test was used to identify the potential risk factors associated with Hepatitis B Virus positivity using SPSS Version −15. Results: A total of 265 delivering women with the mean age of 25.8 years were enrolled in the study. Of these delivering women, 8 (3.0%) of mothers were positive for Hepatitis B Virus surface antigen, whereas 6 (2.3%) of cord bloods were positives with 75% concordance rate of exposed infants with sero-positive mothers. However, only one maternal positive case was observed for Hepatitis B e Ag test. Only 11% of the mothers know their Hepatitis B Virus status. Of the total mothers assessed for possible risk factors, 69 (26%) had only one type, while 161 (60.8%) had multiple exposure factors such as ear pricing, history of tribal marks, abortion, multiple-sexual partner and history of surgical procedures experienced from high to low frequency. The remaining 35 (13.2%) of the participants had not experienced possible risk factors. Conclusion: Though the maternal positivity rate was low, the rate of positivity in cord bloods was almost equal to those infected mothers. Therefore, screening of pregnant mothers and vaccination of infants could help to reduce the transmission. To minimize the higher overall risk exposure status of mothers, increasing awareness and intensive public health education is also recommended. Hepatitis B virus; Seroprevalence; Risk factor; Delivering women; Cord blood Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the leading causes of liver diseases causing serious public health problem worldwide. It is 50 – 100 and 10 times more infectious than human immune deficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), respectively. Many of the carriers are not realizing that they are infected with the virus and thus HBV is referred as a “silent killer” [ 1 ]. The virus is found in all body fluids and therefore, transmission could be either vertically (from infected mother to the infant or to the child) or horizontally (sexually and/or contact with different body fluids) [ 2,3 ]. However, mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HBV is of great importance for two main reasons as it is numerically important mode of transmission and the earlier an individual is infected the more likely to develop chronic disease [4]. In highly endemic areas, up to 75% of chronic carriers acquire the infection through vertical transmission [ 5 ]. The transmission and infection during infancy increases the chance to develop chronic disease to 90%, while adults usually acquire acute hepatitis B and recover, and hence the chance is 6 to 10% only [ 6 ]. In most developing countries with high HBV prevalence, intrauterine/transplacental transmission can lead to coagulation defects, postpartum hemorrhage, organ failure, high maternal mortality and poor outcomes of their newborns such as still births, neonatal deaths, acute and chronic liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma and increased premature delivery [ 7 ]. According to recent WHO report, one- third of the world’s populations have serologic evidence of past or present HBV infection. Of these, about 350 million are chronic carriers [ 8,9 ], and 1. 2 million die annually from chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma [10]. HBV causes 60 to 80% of the world’s primary liver cancers [ 11 ]. The reported prevalence of chronic HBV infection varies widely, from high (≥8%, in Africa, Asia, and the Western Pacific countries) to (...truncated)


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Dessie Tegegne, Kassu Desta, Belete Tegbaru, Tesfaye Tilahun. Seroprevalence and transmission of Hepatitis B virus among delivering women and their new born in selected health facilities, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a cross sectional study, BMC Research Notes, 2014, pp. 239, Volume 7, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1186/1756-0500-7-239