The prevalance of occult hepatitis B virus infection in immunized children born to mothers who are hepatitis B carriers

The Prevalance Of Occult Hepatitis B Virus Infection In Immunized Children Born To Mothers Who Are Hepatitis B Carriers. Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University Faculty of Medicine, Child Health and Disease Thesis. Zonguldak, 2019 Background and Aim: Hepatitis B virus is a DNA virus belonging to the family Hepadnaviridae. Hepatitis B infection is a common infection worldwide. According to the prevalence studies in Turkey, Turkey is in the middle class in terms of endemic incidence of these infections. Occult Hepatitis B Virus infection is defined as persistent presence of HBV genome in the liver of individuals with negativity in HBV surface antigen (HBsAg). The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of occult Hepatitis B virus infection in the patients born to mothers who are hepatitis B carriers who had Hepatitis B vaccine and Hepatitis B immunoglobulin at birth. Materials and Methods: HBV DNA of 99 patients was studied by HBV QS-RG Real Time PCR (Qiagen ®) method. HBV serology and demographic characteristics of patients were also recorded. Results: A total of 99 HBsAg positive mothers and their children were included in the study. Of these children, 50 were male (50.5%) and 49 were female (49.5%). The mean age of children included in the study was 6.4 ± 4.1 years. Eight mothers (8.1%) had HBeAg positivity and 11 mothers had anti-Hbe negativity during pregnancy. Ten mothers (10.1%) had HBV DNA positive. After delivery, all patients were immunized and 90 infants (90.9%) had HBV immunoglobulin in the first 12 hours and 9 infants (9.1%) had HBV immunoglobulin in the first 12-24 hours. While HBsAg and HBV DNA were negative in all children, the response rate to the vaccine was 66.7%. Four children (4.0%) had Anti HBc IgG and Anti HBe positivity. There were no patients with HBeAg and Anti HBc IgM positivity. Discussion-Conclusion: The host factors are effective in the development of occult Hepatitis B virus infection. In this respect, it is suggested to clinicians to perform screening tests for HBV DNA presence in high risk groups with high sensitivity molecular methods. Studies in which higher number of patients are screened in groups with high risk of hepatitis B virus infection will be useful in our geography to evaluate the current situation and compare them with data in the world. Key words: HBV DNA, Hepatitis B virus, occult hepatitis B infection