Highlights
This study proved of Cambodia achieving WHO 2017 target of <1% HBsAg prevalence.
HBsAg prevalence in 5–7 years old children was 0.56% (95%CI: 0.32%–0.98%).
HBsAg prevalence among the mothers was 4.39% (3.53%–5.45%).
Among children with HBsAg-positive mother, prevalence was as high as 10.11%.
78.4% of children received HepB birth-dose and 58.7% were administered ≤24 h.
Although hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) virus infections are still global health issues, measuring sero-markers by standard venipuncture is challenging in areas limited with the adequate human resources and basic infrastructure. This study aimed to inform the usefulness of dried blood spot (DBS) sampling technique for epidemiological study of HBV and HCV in the resources limited areas. We compared specimen recovery rate expressed as analytical sensitivity ratio of HBsAg, HBcAb and anti-HCV between serum specimens and DBS samples (HemaSpot vs Whatman903). Sensitivity ratio was calculated as the ratio of the measured value from DBS to the measured value from serum. Then both the qualitative and quantitative comparisons of HBsAg detection by DBS were done using Cambodian samples. HBsAg, HBcAb and anti-HCV sensitivity ratios for the highest sample dilution (8fold) were 31.2:1, 38.9:1 and 32.0:1 for Whatman903 card and 17.6:1, 23.5:1 and 26.3:1 for HemaSpot respectively. Detection efficacy of HemaSpot (80%) was not inferior to Whatman903 (60%) after 1 month storage, and no significant difference in any hepatitis virus sero-markers was observed in HemaSpot-spotted patient samples stored for 2 weeks at −25 °C and 29 °C. All reference HemaSpot-spotted 400 HBsAg sero-negative samples showed negative. Sensitivity and specificity of HBsAg in HemaSpot were 92.3% and 100%. The recovery expressed as analytical sensitivity ratio of HBsAg, HBcAb and anti-HCV of HemaSpot specimen were not inferior to Whatman903. Therefore, DBS with its usefulness proved as an acceptable tool for large epidemiological study of HBV and HCV in resources limited remote area. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) constitute a global health issue. Although there are the effective hepatitis B vaccine since 1982 1 and anti-viral drugs such as interferon alpha, lamivudine and others (tenofovir, adefovir, etc) 2,3 , WHO reported that approximately 257 million people have been infected with HBV and only 16.7% of the people diagnosed with hepatitis B were on anti-viral treatment as of 2016 4. Similarly, even there is no vaccine for HCV till now, the direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAAs) for the treatment of HCV were initially developed in 2011 5 and have since yielded high sustained virologic responses (SVRs) 6. But, WHO reported that 71 million people have been chronically infected with HCV and approximately 19% of global population (13.1 millions) knew their diagnosis and around 5 million only had treated with DAA at the end of 2017 7. Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in 2016 a target to eliminate HBV as public health threats by 2030 by reducing the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) prevalence among children to ≤0.1% 8 and to eliminate HCV by 90% reduction in new diagnosis and 65% reduction in HCV related mortality by 2030 9. However, both
The B. pertussis population in Cambodia, where a whole-cell pertussis vaccine (WCV) has been continuously used, resembled those observed previously in developed countries where acellular pertussis vaccines are used. Circulating B. pertussis strains in Cambodia were distinct from those in other countries using WCVs.
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