Prevalence of Hepatitis B, C and D Infections in Preoperative Patients at a Tertiary Hospital in Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Patients going for surgical operations are required to be screened for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections among other transmissible infections. This is necessary for better assessment of the patient's condition alongside the need for extra precautions during surgery. Hepatitis D virus (HDV) infection is not commonly reported but occurs in association with commonly reported but occurs in association with that of hepatitis B virus. The epidemiology of this co-infection is worth investigating, as it constitutes a more aggressive form of hepatitis Following due ethical considerations, this cross-sectional descriptive study enrolled 180 pre-operative patients for viral hepatitis screening. Immunochromatographic methods were used for detection of HBV and HCV infections, while detection of HDV was based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Data processing was carried out using SPSS version 22.0. Results are presented as numbers and frequencies as percentage. The prevalence of HBV, HCV and HDV as recorded among pre-operative patients was 7.8%, 1.7% and 1.1% respectively. Hepatitis B virus alone accounted for 68.8% of all hepatitis cases, while its co-infection with HDV and HCV were observed to be 12.5% and 6.2% respectively Single infection of HCV was seen to be 12.5% of all infected cases. Hepatitis B virus was observed to be the most prevalent viral hepatitis agent within the studied population, while hepatitis D virus was detected at a rate of 1.1%