Epidemiological and biochemical study of hepatitis B infections in Al Shatrah

Hepatitis B virus is the main cause of liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatitis B virus is responsible for around 1 million deaths annually, or about 2 deaths each minute. According to data from the World Health Organization, HIV/AIDS, lower respiratory tract infections, diarrheal diseases, and tuberculosis are the top four infectious diseases that cause death globally. Hepatitis B virus is ranked fifth. In this study ELISA were used to detect the presence of the hepatitis B virus in patient serum, and nested PCR to detect the presence of HBV DNA using particular primers. 115 samples were collected, of which 95 with hepatitis B virus (HBV), 35 were females aged 13 to 95, and 60 were male 1 to 73 years and 20 healthy samples as the control group between 2022 and 2023, from AL-Shatrah Teaching Hospital and Central Health Laboratory in AL-Shatrah City/Thi-Qar Province/Iraq. 5 ml of blood were taken from each patient via venepuncture using a sterile 5 ml syringe. The blood was placed in sterile tubes, which were then allowed to stand at room temperature (18 to 25 °C) for 15 minutes to allow the blood to coagulate. Centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 5 minutes was used to separate the serum from the blood, which was then divided into 300µl aliquots and stored at -20°C until use. The ELISA findings revealed that 100% of the samples tested positive for HBSAg. According to our findings, the proportion of infected male in the male group was the largest (63.2%), while the proportion of infected female in the female group was the lowest (36.8%). The male to female ratio (M/F) was 1.63:1. Respectively, the age groups 41–50 years and 21–30 years had the highest percentage of these patients, followed by the age group 31–40 years (20%), while the age group (80 years) made up the smallest percentage (1.05%). Only 40 samples were taken out of 95 people infected with hepatitis B virus, and 20 uninfected subjects as a control group for biochemical testing. The results that we reached through our current study showed a decrease in the levels of enzyme Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) in infected samples and control samples. In our research, we found that the levels of the enzyme concentration known as Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) in the samples we were analyzing dropped by a sizeable amount and moderation in the values of enzyme Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) in the study samples. 75 samples (78.9%) were positive for HBV DNA using the PCR method and particular primers, whereas 20 samples (21.1%) tested negative.