Prevalence of HBV and HCV among Pregnant Women Attending Kumasi South Hospital (KSH), Ghana

Background and Aim: Both HBV and HCV infections have for decades remained serious public health concerns infecting thousands of people and claiming the lives of millions. The detrimental effects of these viral agents on the gravid women, the infants and the general population are well known and cannot be underestimated. Adequate and quality information on the disease prevalence remain one of the surest ways to tackling the infection head-on. This study therefore assessed the seroprevalence of HBV and HCV among pregnant women who received antenatal care services from the Kumasi South Hospital of the Kumasi Metropolis in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Materials and Methods: A semi-structured questionnaire designed to capture participant’s demographic and gestational data including age, occupation, marital status, educational status and gestational period was administered by the researcher to 200 pregnant women to collect the data for this study. About 2-3mls of whole blood was drawn into an ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) and tested for HBsAg using Alere Determine HBsAg® test strip (sensitivity=95-100% and specificity=96-100%; Abbott Japan Co., Ltd.) and HCV antibodies using Serodia® HCV (sensitivity=100% and specificity=91.5%; Serodia, Fujirebio Inc., Tokyo, Japan) following standard procedures. Due to the lack of more advanced testing facilities such as PCR, each positive test result was repeated in order to reduce the possibility of false positive results. Data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2016 and IBM SPSS vs 25. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact test statistic were used to determine statistical associations between explanatory and outcome variables. Logistics regression was employed to determine potential demographic and gestational risk factors of HBV and HCV infection among the pregnant women. P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Seroprevalence of HBV and HCV infection was 20.0% and 2.5% respectively. HBV infection increased with advancement in age from the least 7.1% among pregnant women aged < 20 years to the highest 22.0% among pregnant women aged 30-39 years until a sharp decline among those forty years and above. HCV prevalence generally declined with increase in age with the highest prevalence (14.3%) recorded among the <20 years old group. Unemployed (22.2%), married (20.3%), basic level educated (20.9%) and multiparous (21.3%) pregnant women recorded the highest HBV prevalence rates whereas unemployed (11.1%), unmarried (5.8%), basic level educated (3.4%) and multiparous (3.2%) pregnant women recorded the highest HCV prevalence rates. None of the demographic or gestational risk parameters was significantly associated with HBV infection in this study (p>0.05) however, age was significantly associated with HCV infection yet posed not significantly high likelihood to HCV infection among the pregnant women.

Conclusion: The HBV prevalence as recorded is highly endemic and therefore requires urgent round table discussions to be properly addressed. Despite the low HCV prevalence, the futuristic detrimental effects it may pose to the general wellbeing of the citizenry cannot be in doubt owing to the high prevalence dominating among the younger pregnant women. Measures such as intensified public education coupled with mass screening and vaccination and treatment of HBV seronegative and positive individuals respectively is therefore advised to mitigate further spread of the disease.