Prevalence of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen in Pregnant Women in Beheshti Hospital of Kashan, Isfahan

BACKGROUND The transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is parenteral, sexual and prenatal. Prevention of vertical transmission of HBV is extremely important, because HBV infection in early life usually results in a chronic carrier state. There has been so much debate about hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) screening in pregnant women. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HBsAg+ among pregnant women referred to Beheshti hospital in Kashan in 2012. PATIENTS AND METHODS This descriptive study was carried out on 768 pregnant women, hospitalized in Beheshti Hospital of Kashan in 2012. After obtaining consent forms, the questionnaires including demographic and HBV infection-associated risk factors were filled through interview and then 5 mL blood was taken from each patient and HBsAg was examined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. These data were analyzed by statistical package for the social science (SPSS) software. RESULTS A total of 12 (1.56%) out of 768 pregnant women were HBsAg+. The mean age of HBsAg+ cases was 24.5 ± 4 years. Most of the HBsAg+ cases (66.6%) were uneducated; 17.7% of the pregnant women were not Iranian, of which 7.4% were HBsAg+. There was no high-risk job, recent dentistry interruption or skin tattoo among the HBsAg+ cases. CONCLUSIONS In this study, 1.56% of pregnant women were HBsAg+, which was higher than the previous studies. This increasing prevalence may be due to the increase of non-Iranians' migrations to Iran. Control of migration and screening and vaccination of these groups should be considered by health policy makers.