Prevalence of HBV and its Associated Risks Factors among Patients Accessing Care at a Secondary Health Facility in Ekiti State, Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

Viral hepatitis is a serious disease of the liver that can have grim prognosis in the absence of early and appropriate medical intervention. Globally, an estimated two billion people are reported to have been infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and out of this, more than 350 million are said to have chronic(long term) liver infection. The likelihood that Hepatitis B Virus infection will become chronic depends upon the age at which a person becomes infected. Young children who become infected with HBV are most likely to develop chronic infection. About 25% of adults who become chronically infected during childhood die from HBV related liver cancer or cirrhosis. According to WHO ranking of hepatitis prevalence, ≤ 1.9%, 2-7.9% and ≥ 8% are low, moderate and high prevalence respectively. Hepatitis is endemic in Ekiti State, there is therefore the need to know its prevalence in the major cities of Ekiti State. Since Ikere-Ekiti is the second major city of Ekiti State, therefore this study set out to know the prevalence of HBV-caused hepatitis in Ikere-Ekiti and its associated factors,. One hundred participants were enrolled- at the State specialist Hospital, Ikere-Ekiti- into the study after obtaining their informed consent. Consecutive sampling was used. Thirty-three (33%) of the subjects were males while 67 (67%) were females. Thirty-seven (37%) , 30 (30%) and 33 (33%) respectively fell were in the ≤26 years, 27-36 and ≥37 age-brackets. Fifty-two (52 %) were singles while 48 (48%) were married. Ninety-three (93%) were Christians while 7 (%) were Muslims. Structured self-administered questionnaires were served on the subjects. Five millilitres of blood were collected from each subject using venepuncture method. The samples were screened for the presence or otherwise of antibodies to HBsAg using a rapid test kit that worked on the principle of immunochromatography. An overall prevalence of 8% was discovered. Five (5%) of the positive subjects were males while 3 (%) were females (p=0.064). Half (50%) of the positive subjects were within the ≤26 years age-bracket, the 27-36 age-bracket had the least number of positive subjects (p=0.512).  Two out of the positive subjects had a history of blood transfusion (p=0.748), one had history of surgery (p=0.580). The imports and implications of these are here discussed. Since viral hepatitis is vaccine-preventable and herd immunity can only be achieved when the vast majority of a society acquires immunity against a particular infectious disease, the government is advised to strive to vaccinate at least 70% of the populace against viral hepatitis- a disease which is endemic, not only in Ekiti State, but in many parts of Nigeria.