Abstract
Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in pregnancy is associated with direct effect of pregnancy and potential viral transmission from mother to newborn. The data on hepatitis B virus infection among pregnant women in the rural area of Karu are very scarce. It is associated with a serious burden on the health care system and the economy of the family. This study therefore aimed to determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis b virus infection among pregnant women attending rural hospital in Karu-Abuja, Nigeria from 1st January 2021 to 31st December 2021
Study design: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study carried out among pregnant women that booked for antenatal care at Nigeria Customs Hospital Karu Abuja over a one-year period.
Materials and Method: Cases were identified from records in labour ward, and antenatal clinic, from November 1st, 2023, to October 31st, 2024. Data was entered and analyzed using the IBM Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS Statistics) Version 27. Armonk, NY: IBM CorpA
Results: A total of 906 pregnant women were registered for antenatal care during the study period of which 79 cases were diagnosed with hepatitis B virus infection and only 74 has the complete information and were included in the statistical analysis. The retrieval rate was 93.6% and the prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection among the study participants was 8.7%. The mean age of the study participants were 31.459 ± 4.4635 years, The mean gestational age at the diagnosis was 23.86 (4.73) weeks. Majority of the participants were multigravida and had attended tertiary levels of education and were booked. About 44 (59.2) participants had received Hepatis vaccine.
Conclusion: The prevalence rate of hepatitis B sero-positivity among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic was higher more than the national target of 8.0 and majority of participants were unvaccinated for HBV.