Prevalence of Hepatitis-b Surface Antigen among Pregnant Women with Maternal and Perinatal Outcome

Objectives: To find prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen among obstetrics and gynecology patients coming to a tertiary care centre and to assess maternal and perinatal outcome. Methods: Study was conducted in 150 patients divided into three groups with Group I consisting of 50 non-pregnant female patients from gynecology ward , Group II consisting of 50 pregnant patients without hepatitis and Group III consisting of 50 pregnant patients with hepatitis. Each patient’s blood was tested for HBsAg by ELISA technique and those found to be positive were retested and if found positive again were declared HBsAg positive. Results: Overall prevalence of HBsAg among pregnant and non-pregnant women was found to be 4%. The carrier rate of HBsAg among pregnant women was higher i.e. 5% as compared to non-pregnant i.e. 2%. 3 patients had history of blood transfusion and 66.6% of them were HBsAg positive. 3 patients had history of jaundice in the past. 2 out of these i.e. 66.66% were HBsAg positive. These findings suggest that blood and blood products are the commonest methods of spread and history of previous jaundice as one of the major risk factors to be looked for during routine screening of patients for hepatitis B. All the 5 HBsAg positive pregnant patients delivered live babies at term vaginally without any major complication. The cord blood of 60% babies was positive for HBsAg delivered from HBsAg positive mothers and these values were statistically highly significant. Conclusion: Similar such studies in larger population groups are requested to further strengthen our observations so that a definite opinion regarding prevention of hepatitis B antigenemia in pregnancy can be formulated. Apart from HBV surface antigen study, other markers like ‘e’ antigen study is desired which would enable the health authorities to assess the need for routine immunization