Abstract

Objective: To determine the magnitude of hepatitis B virus infection in pregnant women and in clinically suspected infectious hepatitis at a tertiary care hospital in Ghaziabad. Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 327 patients in the age of 18–65 years in Department of Microbiology at Santosh Medical College, Ghaziabad between December 2014 to June 2016. Five milliliter blood samples taken from each suspected patient with acute infectious hepatitis were analyzed. The sera were separated and screened for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) by immune-chromatographic card test then HBsAg positive serum samples were tested again for HBsAg using ELISA kit. Positive samples for HBsAg in pregnant women were tested for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) by ELISA test. Results: HBsAg was identified in 18 (5.50%) samples, including 7 (2.14%) males and 11 (3.36%) females. Among these 18 samples, 55.56% were from age group of 21–35 years, which was statistically significant (P < 0.05) as compared to the other age groups. Among 11 HBsAg positive females, six of them were pregnant and the prevalence of HBsAg positive pregnant female was 1.83%. Four females were positive for HBeAg and the prevalence of HBeAg positive pregnant female was 1.22%. A total of 50% (n = 3) HBeAg positive cases were found in age group of 21–35 years, which was statistically significant (P < 0.05) as compared to the other age groups. Conclusions: Study showed that hepatitis B virus is prevalent in general population and in pregnant women. Screening and vaccination should be considered by health policy makers to prevent the transmission of hepatitis B virus.

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