Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B Virus Infection among Pregnant Women attending Antenatal Clinic in a Tertiary Health Institution, Maiduguri. Northeast, Nigeria.

Abstract

Nigeria is still considered one of the highly endemic countries for Hepatitis B, mainly due to perinatal transmission of Hepatitis B virus (HBV). The detection Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in pregnant women is a marker for the risk of mother-to-child HBV transmission. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of HBV infection among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), Maiduguri, Nigeria. This is hospital-based cross-sectional study where two hundred and forty-seven (247) pregnant women attending antenatal facility of UMTH between March 2016 and February 2017 were screened for HBsAg using one step HBsAg test strip (Abon Biopharm, Hangzhon, China). Inclusive was a self-administered structured questionnaire containing socio-demographic information of the pregnant women to establish the presence of possible risk factors such as blood transfusion and sexual transmitted diseases (STDs). Of the 247 pregnant women tested, 12 (4.9%) were seropositive for HBV. There was no significant difference between the ages and HBV infection (X 2 =0.4526, p=0.7975). Likewise, there is no any significant difference between marital status and HBsAg (X 2 =0.0786, p=0.9615). Sexually transmitted infection showed a very high-risk factor in this study (p=0.0242). The HBsAg prevalence obtained in pregnant women in this study reflects high risk of HBV perinatal transmission and call for a widespread infant immunization with HBV vaccine birth dose and subsequent treatment of mothers.