Hepatitis B Virus Infections and Associated Factors among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care Clinic at Deder Hospital, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundHepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious public health problem worldwide. Reports have shown that 68,600 people die of HBV infection and more than 300,000 deaths due to liver cancer secondary to hepatitis B every year globally. Women who are infected with HBV can vertically transmit the infection to their infants. This study aims to determine the prevalence of HBV infection and associated factors among pregnant women.Methods and FindingsA hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among pregnant women who attended antenatal care clinic (ANC) for routine pregnancy check-up between 18 March 2015 and 15 May 2015. Data were collected by face to face interview using a pre-tested questionnaire. Serum was withdrawn for each study subject and used to test for Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) by an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test kit. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between explanatory variables and outcome variable. The prevalence of HBV infection was found to be 6.9%. Interestingly, the history of abortion (AOR 10.9; 95% CI: 2.2–53.9), nose piercing (AOR 9.1; 95% CI: 1.34–61.79), surgical procedure (AOR 12.8; 95% CI: 1.68–97.06) and history of multiple sexual partners (AOR 16.8; 95% CI: 3.18–89.06) were significant predictors of HBV infection.ConclusionsThis study determined that the prevalence of HBV infection among pregnant women was 6.9%, implying that it is high-intermediate endemic area, which is important public health issue needs to be addressed. History of abortion, nose piercing, surgical procedures and multiple sexual partners were significantly associated with this viral infection. Accordingly we advocate that health education programs on the mode of HBV transmission, high-risk behaviors and methods of preventions should be instituted at antenatal care clinics to raise the awareness of mothers and limit the spread of infection. It is also advisable to implement nosocomial infection prevention strategies to prevent the transmissions of HBV through health care related activities such as surgical procedures. Furthermore, all pregnant women should be screened for HBV, treated if necessary to reduce their viral loads and their children vaccinated at birth with the single-dose hepatitis B vaccine to break the cycle of mother-to-child transmission.

Hepatitis B and C viruses’ infection and associated factors among pregnant women in the Amhara region, Ethiopia: implications for prevention of vertical transmission.

“…Pregnant women with multiple sexual partners had 3 times (AOR3.2; 95% CI: 1.3-7.6%) more likely to develop HBV infection than their counterparts. This nding is similar to other studies [17,24,[40][41][42][43]. Blood transfusion has been recognized as a major risk factor for transmission of HBV throughout the world.…”

“…However, our ndings are higher than those of studies done in the east Wolega zone 2.4%, Dawuro 3.5%, Addis Ababa 3%, Eritrea 3.2%, Germany 0.48%, Turkey 2.1%, and China 3.2% [28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. On the other hand, our ndings are lower than those studies done in Dire Dewa 8.4%, Mekele 8%, Hawasa 7.8%, Yirgalem 7.2%, Gambella 7.9%, Harar 6.9%, Tigray 5.5%, Gambia 9.2%, Tazania 8.03%, Cameroon 6.6%, and Ghana 12.9% [16,18,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. There is a variation among the prevalence's of our study with the studies that were conducted around the globe.…”

“…This is similar to previous studies done elsewhere [17,18,34]. However, inconsistent with other studies [40][41][42]. In fact, in Ethiopia, blood and blood products have been screened for HBV, HCV, HIV, syphilis, and malaria since 2001 [6].…”

Prevalence and associated factors of hepatitis B virus infection among pregnant women attending antenatal care at Agena health center, South Ethiopia, 2019: a cross sectional study

“…In Ethiopia the prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection among pregnant women was intermediate (4.7%), with the prevalence of HBSAg positivity ranging from 2.3% to 7.8% [14]. Different studies in Ethiopia shows those pregnant women who have history of multiple sexual partners, history of abortion, and history of surgical procedures, body tattooing and ear/nose piercing have a high chance of infected with HBV [15][16][17][18][19].…”

An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of hepatitis B virus in Ethiopia

“…22(36.7%) [20, 29, 31, 36-38, 44, 46, 49, 50, 53, 58, 62, 63, 67-69, 71, 75, 78, 79, 82], Oromia region 12(20%)[32,34, 41,47,48,56,60,61,64,83,85,87], and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) 9(15%)[30, 43,52,65,66, 70, 74,76,86]. The sample size across the studies was ranged from 108[53] to 35435 [44] obtained from the Amhara region.…”