Hepatitis B and C infection in pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at the catholic hospital, Battor in the Volta Region, Ghana.

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July, 2016
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Viral hepatitis is caused by hepatotrophic viruses with Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C being the frequent viruses affecting humans. Infections with HBV and HCV in pregnancy results in complications to the neonate and mother. Determination of the infection in pregnant women as well as the associated risk factors helps to identify neonates at risk of mother to child transmission and hence appropriate measures taken to help prevent the infection. A cross sectional study was carried out at the Catholic Hospital, Battor, to investigate the seroprevalence of HBV and HCV virus infections and associated risk factors among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic. Structured questionnaire were administered to obtain the socio demographic data and Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay, ELISA from Human diagnostic worldwide, Germany) was used to investigate the presence HBsAg, anti-HBc and anti HCV. One hundred and thirty five (135) pregnant women were enrolled in the study. HBsAg was detected in 37 of these women, giving an overall prevalence of 27.4%. Among these women 5 (13.5%) tested positive for HBeAg indicating that this proportion of patients was highly infectious and therefore likely to transmit the virus to their offspring. The prevalence of hepatitis C in the study population was 8.8% and 60.7% tested positive for anti HBc. Parity, educational background and the use of protection during sex were factors that did not have any statistically significant association in the acquisition of these infection but the age of the subjects had a significant association with the acquisition of both HBV and HCV. Among the associated risk factors analyzed, having multiple sexual partners was the only significant factor in the acquisition of HBV infection whiles history of previous blood transfusion was associated to the acquisition of HCV infection. The results from this study reveals a high prevalence of HBV and HCV among pregnant women in the area.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Clinical Microbiology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science (Clinical Microbiology) School of Medical Sciences, College of Health Sciences
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