Prevalence of HBsAg among patients attending a tertiary hospital in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Nigeria has one of the greatest disease burdens from chronic viral hepatitis. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is an important public health problem worldwide, more than two million people. Globally, around 96% of viral hepatitis deaths are attributable to HBV and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) but the prevalence of these infections is poorly characterized. Thus, this study aimed to investigate seroepidemiological aspects of HBV infection and its associated factors among patients attending a tertiary hospital in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Serum samples from 92 participants were screened for a serological marker of HBV infection (HBsAg) by Monolisa HBsAg ULTRA enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (manufactured by BIO RAD Laboratories, California, United States) following the manufacturer’s guidelines. Of the 92 patients tested, 10 (10.9%) were positive while 82 (89.1%) were negative. Among them (10/92), the majority were females (11.0%, 8/73) than males (10.5%, 2/19); the highest prevalence rate of an HBsAg occurred in the age group of 21-30 years (17.6%, 3/17). A higher prevalence of HBV (13.2%, 9/68) occurred in the married than singles (4.2%, 1/24). This study showed a high seroprevalence (10.9%), which indicates a rise in the prevalence of HBV in the study area. The findings of this study confirm the findings of other studies that HBV is endemic in Nigeria. These finding views females and males as fairly equivalent in the risk of HBV infection. As the prevalence of young adults were higher than older adults, this is considered cogent as younger adults are implicated as risk factors for HBV infection. This study adds important granularity to our understanding of the hepatitis epidemic. Large cross-sectional studies are needed to better characterize HBV prevalence, but mass screening may not be warranted.