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Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus in Ethiopia

High viral load and positive hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) results are risk factors for mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of hepatitis B virus (HBV). In sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about the distribution of these risk factors, as well as early childhood HBV transmission. In this study, Eth...

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Autores principales: Johannessen, Asgeir, Mekasha, Bitsatab, Desalegn, Hailemichael, Aberra, Hanna, Stene-Johansen, Kathrine, Berhe, Nega
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8145487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33925930
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9050430
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author Johannessen, Asgeir
Mekasha, Bitsatab
Desalegn, Hailemichael
Aberra, Hanna
Stene-Johansen, Kathrine
Berhe, Nega
author_facet Johannessen, Asgeir
Mekasha, Bitsatab
Desalegn, Hailemichael
Aberra, Hanna
Stene-Johansen, Kathrine
Berhe, Nega
author_sort Johannessen, Asgeir
collection PubMed
description High viral load and positive hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) results are risk factors for mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of hepatitis B virus (HBV). In sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about the distribution of these risk factors, as well as early childhood HBV transmission. In this study, Ethiopian women aged 18–45 years with chronic hepatitis B were assessed for the presence of HBeAg and high viral load. Their children below 4 years of age were invited for assessment of viral markers, defining active HBV infection as a positive hepatitis B s-antigen (HBsAg) and/or detectable HBV DNA. In total, 61 of 428 HBV-infected women (14.3%) had a positive HBeAg result and/or a high viral load. Of note, 26 of 49 women (53.1%) with viral load above 200,000 IU/mL were HBeAg negative. Among 89 children born of HBV-infected mothers (median age 20 months), 9 (10.1%) had evidence of active HBV infection. In conclusion, one in seven women with chronic hepatitis B had risk factors for MTCT, and HBeAg was a poor predictor of high viral load. One in ten children born of HBV-infected women acquired HBV-infection despite completing their scheduled HBV vaccination at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age.
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spelling pubmed-81454872021-05-26 Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus in Ethiopia Johannessen, Asgeir Mekasha, Bitsatab Desalegn, Hailemichael Aberra, Hanna Stene-Johansen, Kathrine Berhe, Nega Vaccines (Basel) Article High viral load and positive hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) results are risk factors for mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of hepatitis B virus (HBV). In sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about the distribution of these risk factors, as well as early childhood HBV transmission. In this study, Ethiopian women aged 18–45 years with chronic hepatitis B were assessed for the presence of HBeAg and high viral load. Their children below 4 years of age were invited for assessment of viral markers, defining active HBV infection as a positive hepatitis B s-antigen (HBsAg) and/or detectable HBV DNA. In total, 61 of 428 HBV-infected women (14.3%) had a positive HBeAg result and/or a high viral load. Of note, 26 of 49 women (53.1%) with viral load above 200,000 IU/mL were HBeAg negative. Among 89 children born of HBV-infected mothers (median age 20 months), 9 (10.1%) had evidence of active HBV infection. In conclusion, one in seven women with chronic hepatitis B had risk factors for MTCT, and HBeAg was a poor predictor of high viral load. One in ten children born of HBV-infected women acquired HBV-infection despite completing their scheduled HBV vaccination at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age. MDPI 2021-04-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8145487/ /pubmed/33925930 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9050430 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Johannessen, Asgeir
Mekasha, Bitsatab
Desalegn, Hailemichael
Aberra, Hanna
Stene-Johansen, Kathrine
Berhe, Nega
Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus in Ethiopia
title Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus in Ethiopia
title_full Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus in Ethiopia
title_fullStr Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus in Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus in Ethiopia
title_short Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus in Ethiopia
title_sort mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis b virus in ethiopia
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8145487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33925930
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9050430
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