ABSTRACT
Introduction: hepatitis B virus is one of the most common chronic infections in the world. Over half of the world population has been exposed to this virus. It is estimated that 3% of Iranian population are - chronic carriers
Objective: to determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis B infection in pregnant women in Zahedan, Iran
Method: in this cross-sectional study in a period of one month in Zahedan, total cases of 200 pregnant women were enrolled in our study. Sera obtained from these pregnant women were evaluated for HBsAg by ELISA method
Result: our data showed that 6.5% of the pregnant women had a positive test for HBsAg
Conclusion: it seems that hepatitis B infection is highly endemic at least in pregnant women in Zahedan. On the basis of these epidemiologic data, screening of all pregnant women is necessary