Seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus infection in pre-mass vaccination era among children residing in a rural area of Bangladesh

Background and objectives: There are few details available regarding the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the general Bangladeshi population. There is a dearth of data on prevalence of HBV infection in children and adolescents who were born before the hepatitis B vaccine was introduced in the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). The objective of the current study was to use archived data to describe the seroepidemiology of HBV infection (HBsAg and anti-HBc Antibody) among school children in a particular rural area of Bangladesh. Also, the study correlated serum vitamin A level with the HBV infection status among a subset of children. Materials and method: The study analyzed the archived data of a study conducted in 2003 and 2004. The samples were collected from 1995 children, aged 5 to 15 years, from a purposively selected rural area located about 100 km north-east of capital Dhaka. HBsAg (HBV surface antigen) and anti-HBc antibody were determined by ELISA method. Vitamin A (retinol) in blood was assayed by HPLC technique. The prevalence rates of HBsAg and anti-HBc antibody was determined by simple percentages. All associations between different characteristics were tested by Chi square test. Results: Of the total 1995 children, 988 (49.5%) and 1007 (50.5%) were male and female respectively. Among them, 23 (1.2%) were HBsAg positive or HBV carriers and 79 (8.1%) were anti-HBc antibody positive. Neither HBsAg nor anti-HBc antibody positivity rate showed any difference in male and female children. There was also no significant difference of HBsAg positivity rate amongst children of different age groups; whereas, anti-HBc antibody positivity rate increased significantly (p <0.005) with increase of age. Serum vitamin A was estimated in a subset of children. The mean serum vitamin A concentration was found significantly (p<0.05) lower among HBsAg positive children compared to their age and sex matched healthy control group. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that rural children are in risk of exposure to HBV infection. Increasing HBV seropositivity with age emphasizes the need for devising prevention strategies and to create awareness among the rural children. Further studies are necessary to find out the hitherto undetected sources namely occult hepatitis B cases and the ways of spread of HBV in the community. IMC J Med Sci. 2023; 17(2):007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55010/imcjms.17.017 *Correspondence: M Abu Sayeed, Department of Community Medicine, Ibrahim Medical College, 1/A, Ibrahim Sarani, Segunbagicha, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh; Email: sayeed1950@gmail.com; J. Ashraful Haq, Department of Microbiology, Ibrahim Medical College, Segunbagicha, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Email: jahaq54@yahoo.com