Seroepidemiological patterns and predictors of hepatitis B, C and HIV viruses among pregnant women attending antenatal care clinic of Atat Hospital, Southern Ethiopia. 2020

Temesgen Abera Bafa, and Andamlak Dendir Egata
Department of Medical laboratory Science, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Wolkite University, Wolkite, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND Viral hepatitis is a serious blood-borne and sexually transmitted systemic communicable disease affecting the liver. Commonly, it is caused by hepatitis B and C viruses. HIV infection has been one of the largest public health challenges that can also be transmitted vertically. OBJECTIVE To determine seroepidemiological patterns and predictors of hepatitis B, C and HIV viruses among pregnant women attending antenatal care clinic at Atat Hospital, Southern Ethiopia. METHODS Hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 222 pregnant women from May to July, 2017. A structured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic characteristics and predicators of hepatitis B, C and HIV infections through face-to-face interview. Venous blood sample of 5 mL was collected from study participants, and serum was tested for HBsAg, anti-HCV and anti-HIV using rapid test kits and further confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify predictors of hepatitis and HIV infections. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS The overall seroprevalence of hepatitis B, C and HIV infections were 4.5%, 1.8% and 2.7%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, the prevalence of hepatitis B virus infections was significantly higher among patients having history of poly-sexual practices (adjusted odds ratio = 11.31; 95% confidence interval = 1.24-28.69, p = 0.003), history of abortion (adjusted odds ratio = 8.64; 95% confidence interval = 5.5-30.36, p = 0.034), home delivery by traditional birth attendants (adjusted odds ratio = 9.06; 95% confidence interval = 2.01-13.36, p = 0.005) and blood transfusion (adjusted odds ratio = 18.1; 95% confidence interval = 2.63-114.24, p = 0.001). HIV co-infection was present in 40% and 100% of hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus positive pregnant women, respectively. All hepatitis C virus positive women had a history of ear piercing, abortion and home delivery. CONCLUSIONS Hepatitis B, C and HIV were all uncommon infections in this population, with hepatitis B virus the most common. All hepatitis C virus positive pregnant women were co-infected with HIV. Significant association was found between hepatitis B virus infection and predictors. Therefore, continuous screening of pregnant women for hepatitis B and C infections should be performed.

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