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Abstract
A serological survey conducted among 196 pregnant women resident in and around Maiduguri, an urban town in north eastern Nigeria showed that 33 (16.8%) were asymptomatic carriers of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg). They are within the age range of 14-40 years with mean (± SD) age of 24.7 (± 6.3). The women attend antenatal clinic at the State Specialist Hospital, a secondary health facility in Maiduguri, Borno state. The women are all heterosexuals. The distribution of HBsAg carrier rate according to age of women studied showed a significant (p = 0.0061) increase of the prevalence of HBsAg from 4 (8.7%) in the lower age group (39 years). According to the number of pregnancies, the prevalence of HBsAg infection increased significantly from 6 (9.2%) among primiparous to 13 (13.7%) and 14 (38.9%) among multiparous and grand multiparous respectively. The carrier rate of HBsAg infection among the pregnant women studied based on their duration of pregnancies and their social class showed no significant differences. However, according to the factors known to be commonly associated with the highest risk of transmission of HBV such as history of blood transfusion, Tribal marks/tattooing, use of sharps, sharing of articles, history of jaundice in the women and husbands, history of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) of the women and husbands and the type of marriage (monogamous or polygamous), number of sexual relationships per week, only the history of blood transfusion was significantly associated with HBsAg carrier rate (RR = 3.71., 95% Confidence Interval (C.I.), 1.89-7.30, p = 0.0078). The study confirms that pregnant women who attend antenatal clinic in this secondary health facility are at higher risk of being infected with the HBV, which could lead to both prenatal and post natal transmission to their newborns.
Highlights
Hepatitis B is one of the commonest and most widespread infections of humans [1]
The present study aims to determine the possible risk factors associated with HBV transmission among pregnant women and the prevalence of one of the markers of hepatitis B virus infection (HBsAg)
This study reports an overall high carrier rate of 16.8% hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at state specialist Hospital Maiduguri, Borno State
Summary
Hepatitis B is one of the commonest and most widespread infections of humans [1]. It is estimated that worldwide more than two billion people have been infected by HBV and 350 million people have chronic infection [2]. The prevalence of infection with the virus varies greatly from country to country and even within the same country or continent This variation depends upon a complex of behavioural, environmental and host or genetic factors [1]. The variation in prevalence of the infection is significant within the different geographic areas of the world and can be divided into areas of high, intermediate and low endemicity based on the prevalence of HBV markers and carriers [4]. The infection appears to be highly endemic in areas such as Southeast Asia, the Amazon Basin, sub-Saharan Africa and areas of China, where an estimated 70% - 90% of the population shows serologic evidence of previous or current hepatitis B infection and high carrier rates of 8% - 20% [4]. In the intermediate endemicity areas such as Middle East, Japan, North Africa, Central and Latin America, Russia and parts of eastern and southern Europe, 20% - 55% of the OPEN ACCESS
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