Preventing the Mother to Child Transmission of Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is chronic viral infection of liver occurring in infants get infected from their mothers who have a high level of hepatitis B virus in the blood (known as HBV viral load) are responsible for most chronic infections needs to be prevented is considered as most important strategy to control the HBV epidemic.

to assess this strategy a new survey based on 76 delivery hospitals from ten major European countries presented at the 6th World Congress of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition shows that only 38% of those women who tested positive with high HBV-DNA levels were treated during the final 12 weeks of pregnancy despite the vast majority of centres (88%) having written protocols for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HBV infection.

‘Proper adherence to protocol prevents mother-to-child transmission of HBV infection.’

Even the post-vaccination testing of infants from HBV positive mothers is provided in less than half of centre leads to late start of antiviral therapy in women with high HBV-DNA levels and inconsistency is reported across all centres on the timing of the HBV vaccine schedule.

Lead author on the research, Michele Pinon from the University of Turin, commented: 'This survey provides a strong indication that significant variance and gaps exist in hospital policies and procedures to prevent direct mother-to-child transmission of HBV across Europe. There is a clear need to implement a multidisciplinary clinical pathway involving obstetricians, neonatologists, and hepatologists, with a stronger connection between the phases before, during and after birth'.

This research identifies the barriers and challenges in prevention protocols is considered as key step in obtaining the desired outcome by adhering to international guidelines across European countries for eliminating viral hepatitis as a major public health threat by 2030.



Source: Medindia