Padmavali Palange¹, B Mohan Rao²

¹Assistant Professor, ²Professor and Head, Department of Microbiology, Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagunur, Karimnagar, Telangana, India, 505417.

Address for correspondence: Dr Padmavali N Palange, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagunur, Karimnagar, Telangana, India, 505417.

Email: padmavali@gmail.com

Background: Hepatitis B virus infection is a significant public health problem not only in India but worldwide. Vertical transmission and hepatitis B virus infection early in childhood leads to more chances of progression to chronic liver disease, liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. It will remain so until appropriate and effective nationwide vaccination programmes and other control measures are established.

Objectives: This study was aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) among pregnant women.

Materials and Methods : The present hospital record-based, cross sectional study was conducted at the rural based tertiary care teaching hospital, in Northern Telangana, India, from October 2015 to July 2017. The screening for HBsAg, in all the serum samples collected from pregnant women, was performed using commercial rapid immunoassay kits (HEPACARD - Diagnostic Enterprises, H.P. India). The data of those, who were found to be positive for HBsAg was statistically analyzed with the chi-square test, and results were considered significant if the p value was <0.05.

Results :The overall HBsAg seroprevalence rate was 0.9%, among the total 1411 pregnant women included in this study. HBsAg seroprevalence was highest, 1.4% in 18-20 years of age group, 1.1% in the second trimester of pregnancy and 1.5% in primigravidae. The correlations of seroprevalence rate of HBsAg among selected age groups and according to trimester of pregnancy and parity were not found statistically significant. (p value > 0.05)

Conclusion : In this study, the overall HBsAg seroprevalence rate was 0.9 %. This study recommends that pregnant women should be screened for HBsAg at the first antenatal clinic visit for appropriate management and effective prevention of vertical transmission.

Keywords : Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), pregnant women, seroprevalence