Prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection in pregnant females of rural areas of Karachi and identification of important risk factors

AbstractObjective: This study undertakes seroprevalence of Hepatitis B Virus(HBV) infection in pregnant females of rural areas and identifies important risk factors associated with hepatitis B virus. Study design:Cross-sectional study Place and Duration of Study:The study was carried out at Baqai Medical University and Muhammadi Blood bank Karachi from January to December 2021. Patients and Methods:A total of 385 samples were collected from pregnant females belonging to different areas of Karachi. Pregnant females of age 17- 45 years of rural areas were included while all non-pregnant females having comorbids were excluded. Samples were collected in EDTA tubes. Serum was extracted by centrifugation. Screening for hepatitis B was done by Electro Chemi Luminiscence Immunoassay (ECLIA) on cobas e 411 analyzer. Amplification and reporting of HBV was done using Real time PCR. Statistical analysis was done by using SPSS version 25. Results:The prevalence of HBV is 10.4% in pregnant females. Important risk factors identified includes middle aged pregnant females (13.5%) having lack of education (42.2%) belonging to low socioeconomic status (14.5%) and most of them are housewives. The proportion of pregnant females found to be infectious who did give history of contact with diagnosed cases of hepatitis was 100% and 58.3% had positive history of transfusion. There was significant association of history of miscarriage and HBV (15.9%). History of previous C-section with hospital admissions were found significantly associated with HBV. Conclusion:Our findings are depictive of an increasing trend and also highlight the important risk factors associated with spread of this virus in community. Lack of awareness among general population, reproductive age bracket, inappropriate screening of blood at rural health centers and malpractice of surgical procedures are some of the important risk factors pointed out in our study.