Prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus antibody among pregnant women and blood donors at Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus is one of the emerging infectious diseases that can be transmitted through blood-to-blood contact. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies among potential blood donors and pregnant women attending Bowen University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State. This hospital-based study was conducted from December 2014 to September 2015. The study group (N = 279) included potential blood donors and pregnant women. Data on socio-demographic characteristics and potential risk factors were collected using a structured questionnaire. The presence of anti-HCV antibodies in serum samples of the studied subjects were detected using third-generation Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) (WKEA Med Supplies Corp, China). Chisquare test was utilized to assess the association between the socio-demographic variables and HCV status. Logistic regression was done to determine the strength of association between risk factors and HCV status. Statistical significance was set at P ˂ 0.05. Overall seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus infection was found to be 1.79% consisting 0.36% of pregnant women and 1.43% of blood donors. None of the socio-demographic characteristics and potential risk factors among the study groups were significantly associated with hepatitis C virus infection. This study found a seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibody to be 1.79%, thus, screening of pregnant women and blood donors for HCV infections with the use of ELISA is recommended because of its important role in detecting the presence of anti-HCV antibody with utmost specificity and sensitivity.

Viral Hepatitis Among Pregnant Womens

“…They considered ELISA as a standard test for detecting hepatitis due to its high sensitivity and specificity. 9 Mirambo et all did study at Tanzania on Prevalence of Hepatitis B among pregnant women and again found a low prevalence of it i-e 3.8% as compared to our study. 10 In our study the prevalence of Hepatitis C were high as compared to Hepatitis B while the study of Tetteh V having high prevalence of hepatitis B as compared to Hepatitis C. 11 In our study the highest number of cases occur between the ages of 31-45 years while the study of Dwivedi M found that out of 4,000 women, 37 (0.9%) tested positive for HBsAg.…”

Rapid Diagnostics for Hepatitis B and C Viruses in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

“…Studies within Nigeria have reported an HBV prevalence of 7.4% (241/3,238) among pregnant women (27), 10% among students in tertiary institutions (22), and 5.3% prevalence among HIV co-infected children (28). The prevalence of anti-HCV seropositivity among Nigerian students aged 21-23 years old was 12% (24), but was considerably lower in pregnant women (0.36%) and blood donors (1.43%) (12,29). Ayele et al (12) reported an overall HBsAg and anti-HCV antibody prevalence of 7.3% (33/453) and 2.0% (9/453) among refugees in Ethiopia, respectively (12).…”