Sero-prevalence of hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficiency virus, and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in selected general hospitals of Mekelle and Eastern zone of Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) share common transmission risk factors and represent significant global public health challenges. They are major contributors to morbidity and mortality among pregnant women, especially in low and middle-income countries. However, there is limited local data on the burden of these infections among pregnant women in the study area collectively. Hence, this study was aimed to assess the sero-prevalence of hepatitis B viruses (HBV) and human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV), and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in selected general hospitals of Mekelle and Eastern Zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Method: A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted from December 2024 to April 2025 in selected general hospitals of Mekelle and Eastern zones of Tigray. Socio-demographic risk factors data and blood sample were collected from the 238 pregnant women. Rapid diagnostic tests were used to detect HBV and HIV. HBV confirmation with Enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) was also performed. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 27. Descriptive and Logistic regression analysis was used to assess associations between variables. A p-value of ≤0.05 was considered as statistical significant. Result: The overall seroprevalence of HBV and HIV were 9.7% and 4.2% respectively. However, no cases of HBV/HIV co-infection were identified. Among the three sites the seroprevalence of HBV and HIV were 8.9% & 3.7%, 8% & 2.7% and 11.9% & 6% in Adigrat, Wukro and Mekelle respectively. Variables like older age (AOR = 3.10, 95% CI: 1.01–9.46, P = 0.047), history of liver disease (AOR = 23.67, 95% CI: 3.55–158.01, P = 0.001), history of abortion (AOR: 0.23, 95% CI: 0.05-0.96; p=0.043), nose piercing (AOR: 4.01, 95% CI: 1.35, 11.92; p=0.013) and history of sexually transmitted infection(AOR: 5.94, 95% CI: 1.41-24.99; p=0.015) were revealed significant association with seroprevalence of HBV while knowledge about transmission of HIV (Exact OR = 0.10, 95% CI: 0.02–0.72, p = 0.0219) was the only variable significantly associated with of HIV infection. Conclusion: The overall seroprevalence of HBV among pregnant women attending antenatal care was high according to WHO classification. The current HIV prevalence lies within the range of the pooled HIV prevalence among pregnant women in Ethiopia