Serological and Molecular Detection of Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Baghdad, Iraq

Abstract

Hepatitis B is infected liver and may cause epidemics in many parts of the world like Asia and Africa.Chronic liver disease is mainly caused by chronic hepatitis B infection, causing liver damage and fibrosis.The virus is transmitted by infected person blood or body fluids contact. About 400 blood samples were collected from Patients suspected infected with hepatitis B virus that attended the Middle East laboratory from Baghdad, Iraq during 2017. The age of patients ranged from 8 to 70 years old. Approximately 5ml of venous blood were collected and serum was separated. HBV markers, HBsAg, HBsAb, HBeAg, HBeAb, and HBcAb were measured by ELISA and DNA was extracted for determination of viral load and genotypes, the viral load of HBV in serum specimens of the infected patients was detected by real time PCR using COBAS-TaqMan-HBV test using primers and probes targeting the highly conserved pre-core and core region. Total of 158 samples were found positive to HBV infection, fourteen of them gave viral load ≥ 10 7 and the rest 144 samples ranging from 2×10 2 to 2×10 4 IU/mL. The mean age of female patients was 37.17±6.4 in comparison with male age mean 33.3±9 year (ranging from 8 to 70 years old). Most patients were female 58.23%. The HBV infections rising markedly in female patients, and particularly among females in age group 26-34(17.7%) while in male 22(13.9%) followed by age group 35-43 (20.2%) of both genders. The resent study suggested that the history of HBV transmission was predictive for Operations (Opr), and Dentist (Dent) gain equal rates (32.91%) followed by blood transfusion (11.39%), Kidney dialysis (10.13%), and Caesarean delivery (7.59%). Hepatitis B virus infection by other means (Inf) and Cupping (Hijama) were the least. Most cases were positive for HBsAg (73.4%) and HBcAb (77.2%) with high percentage, while HBsAb and HBeAg were very low positive percentage (2.5, 6.3) respectively. About 73.4% of patients were found positive to HBsAg, HBcAb, and negative to HBsAb most patients (73.4%) were chronically infected with HBV and 17.7% are Susceptible. Most patients were chronically infected with HBV followed by more people susceptible for ‫‬ ‫‬ ‫‬infection‫‬ that ‫‬ needs to be considered for vaccination.