Preliminary study of seroprevalence and risk factors for hepatitis B infection in pregnant women in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo

ABSTRACT

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, defined as positivity for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), remains a public health problem nationally and globally. The objective of this study was to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors for HBV infection in pregnant women in the city of Lubumbashi.Methods: A Cross-sectional study of the 269 pregnant women received at Shalina Polyclinic in Lubumbashi was conducted. HBV screening was performed by the PCR technique (using the COBAS TaqMan 48 controller). The chi-square test and the calculation of the odds-ratios with 95% Confidence Intervals were used with the significance level set at p less than 0.05.Results: The mean age of pregnant women was 30.0 ± 5.34 years (range, 17 to 44 years). The majority of them were unemployed (98.51%) and married (99.25%). All pregnant women were unaware of their HBV serologic status and had not been vaccinated against HBV. Eighteen (6.69% [95% CI 4.01-10.37%]) participants had HBsAg positive and four (1.48% [95% CI 0.41-3.76%]) were HIV-positive. The highest prevalence of hepatitis B was observed in the age group between 31-40 (10.53%), single (50%), women with paying occupation (25%) and diabetes mellitus (14.29%) and a history of surgery (14.29%) with no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). However, HBV was significantly higher in HIV-positive pregnant women, who presented a risk of nearly 9-fold higher (50% versus 6.04%; OR adjusted 8.89 [1.04-76.09]) compared to HIV-negative pregnant women.Conclusion: our study shows that hepatitis B is a public health problem among pregnant women in the city of Lubumbashi. The history of HIV infection is independently associated with HBV infection in this context