Viral hepatitis B among pregnant women in Ketour village [Gharbia Governorate]

ABSTRACT

Prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg] was found to be 18.18% among bilharzial pregnant women without splenectomy, 4.55% among bilharzial pregnant women with splenectomy and 3.03% among non bilharzial group of women. There was a tendency of HBsAg to decrease with the increase of age. Parenteral therapy [50.00%] and blood transfusion [29.41%] constituted the main routes for viral hepatitis transmission. Out of 34 HBsAg +ve pregnant women, one case died before delivery with a case fatality rate of 2.94%. Fetal complications included still births [5.88%], neonatal deaths [8.82%] low birth weight infants [17.65%] and congenital malformations [2.49%]. Recommendations included routine screening of all pregnant women for HBsAg and giving immunoprophylaxis to all infants borne to HBsAg positive mothers in rural areas