Screening of pregnant Saudi women for hepatitis B surface antigen

Annals of Saudi Medicine
Yagob Y Al-MazrouSalah Tumsah

Abstract

The high prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) in pregnant women is considered the most important factor contributing to the higher carrier rate of HBsAg in some populations, including Saudi Arabia. Universal hepatitis B vaccination in infancy was implemented in Saudi Arabia in 1990 to avoid early acquisition of infection. At the same time, another program was launched to vaccinate all school children at school entry as a second target group. The aim of this study was to evaluate the HBsAg prevalence rate in Saudi pregnant women 12 years after launching the program and to assess regional variation, if any. In a cross-sectional study, 2664 pregnant Saudi women were recruited from the five main regions in Saudi Arabia. Blood samples were tested for HBsAg. Positive samples were tested also for HBeAg. Of 2664 pregnant Saudi women, 65 were positive for HBsAg (2.46%, 95% CI=2.11%-2.69%). Four were positive for HBeAg (0.15%). The HBsAg prevalence rate was higher in Gizan (4.2%) and lower in Tabuk (1.4%) (P=-0.035). Only one case was positive for HBsAg in women under the age of 20 years (1/186), a 0.5% positivity rate in this age group compared with 2.6% in the older age group (P=-0.049 for...Continue Reading

References

Sep 1, 1986·Infection·C M ParandeS J Ashraf
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Citations

Jul 30, 2009·Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology·Marianne GuirgisAlice Lee
Feb 17, 2010·Hepatology Research : the Official Journal of the Japan Society of Hepatology·Swati Sinha, Manoj Kumar
Jul 18, 2015·World Journal of Gastroenterology : WJG·Waleed Al-HamoudiFaisal Abaalkhail
Apr 8, 2006·Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene·Tariq A Madani

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