RESUMO
To assess the risk of perinatal B virus transmission in a population of French and immigrant women, 1,923 women were tested for HBs antigen and serological markers of B virus replication, i. e. HBe antigen and HBV DNA, during the last trimester of their pregnancy. The patients included in this study were French (n = 1,295 (67.3 per cent] and immigrant women (n = 628 (32.7 per cent] attending consultation in four public Parisian suburb hospitals. The immigrant population was composed of natives of the Mediterranean area or Portugal (64 per cent), West Africa (23 per cent), and South-East Asia (13 per cent). Serum HBsAg was tested by conventional radioimmunoassay. When present, HBeAg and antiHBe were tested by radioimmunoassay, and HBV DNA by the hybridization procedure. The overall HBsAg prevalence was 1.56 per cent. This high prevalence was in part explained by the large proportion of immigrants in whom it varied from 0.8 to 7.5 per cent according to their origin. Prevalence was 0.85 per cent in French women, higher than that usually admitted in France. Serological markers of viral replication (HBeAg and/or HBV-DNA) were more often present in the immigrants (4 out of 19) than in the French women (1 out of 11). Discrepancies between HBe status and HBV DNA were present in 4 out of the 30 HBs antigen positive women. Due to the possible high prevalence of HBV carriage in pregnant women, routine antenatal HBs antigen screening should be recommended in France. Such screening, associated with immunoprophylaxis of newborns at risk of contamination, can help in the prevention of perinatal transmission of hepatitis B virus.