The Oral Parasitic Microbiome in Hepatitis B Virus Infected Sudanese Patients with Gum Disease

BACKGROUND: We aimed to evaluate a potential link between colonization of gingival crevices by the Entamoeba gingivalis as oral parasite microbiome and Hepatitis B infection among gum disease Sudanese patients. METHODS: This study was conducted on 448 gum disease patients attending to Dental Clinic of Kosti Teaching Hospital, Kosti, Sudan in 2017–2018. Oral symptoms were registered in 336 patients at different stages of the HBV infection and in 112 HBV seronegative gum disease control. All participants were screened for HBV using ELISA test. Unstimulated whole saliva and gingival scraping were obtained and analyzed for the presence of the amoeba using a parasitological technique. RESULTS: Statistically highly significant correlation was found between the detection of the E. gingivalis in Saliva/gingival scraping and gum illness disease with HBV-infected patients than healthy control group (P<0.05). There was high association between the occurrence of the amoeba between the two groups and smoking, snuffing habitats (P<0.05), inversely, no association with the oral personal hygiene. CONCLUSION: The presence of the amoeba was not related to the degree of gum diseases only, but to the HBV infection diagnosis. To our knowledge, this is the first study of E. gingivalis in association with HBV infection among gum disease Sudanese patients; maybe predict the role of oral parasitic microbiome in the status of gum disease in HBV infection.