Abstract:
Sudan has a high HBV seroprevalence of greater than 8% HBsAg-
positivity, it is can be transmitted through blood or body fluids, by
both, vertical and horizontal routes of transmission. In the population
at high risk such as hemodialysis patients , blood recipients and
pregnancy, cross contamination via blood is mainly responsible for
hepatitis B virus infection transmission. The ordinary method used for
screening is ELSA technique. Nucleic acid testing (NAT) for blood
screening enable detecting
HBV infection in the window period,
therefore, the introduction of NAT has a great role in detecting the
positive sample.
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HBcAb,
HBsAg and HBV DNA among high-risk Sudanese population to
determine the impact of these markers testing in detecting hepatitis B
infection.
In this study 432 specimens; 111 samples were blood donors, 168
were hemodialysis and 153 sample were pregnant ladies were
collected from healthy population as they was reported as HBsAg negative. Personal, socio-demographic data and risk factors (e.g. age,
HBV
vaccination,
previous
blood
donation,
previous
organ
transplantation, and past history of bilharziasis) was included in the
study. All samples were retested for HBsAg, anti-HBcAb using
ELISA. Presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA was checked by
conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) Out of samples enrolled in this study 38 (8.8%) were HBsAg negative. 61
(14.1%) were HBcAb positive . The frequency of HBcAb and HBsAg is
found to be higher among blood donors, than other population, male than
female , more distributed among the age 20-40 years (56.3%) than age
group less than 20 years (7.2%) and above 40 (36.6%). No samples were
positive for HBV-DNA, indicating OBI frequency of 0%. No other clinical
characteristics (previous infection with Hepatitis, tissue transplantation,
infection with Bilharzia) were significantly associated with HBsAg or
anti-HB core seropositivity among all study group.
Moderate prevalence of HBV infection markers was found among
negatively reported population under study, these indicate caution in HBV
screening and recommend the use of more sensitive assay (other than the
conventional PCR technique)to detect HBV DNA at a very low
concentration, below the limit of detection. Improving the quality of
laboratory screening of blood, in blood bank setting, for HBV is one of the
components in reducing the risk for transfusion-transmitted HBV.
