Seroprevalence and Associated Factors of Hepatitis B and C Virus Among Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients Attending Health Facilities in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia

• Published in: Infection and drug resistance Vol. 14; pp. 3599 - 3608
• Main Authors: Getie, Birhanu, Ayalew, Getnet, Amsalu, Anteneh, Ferede, Getachew, Yismaw, Gizachew, Tessema, Belay
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Zealand Dove Medical Press Limited 01-01-2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Dove; Dove Medical Press
• Subjects: Analysis; Antibodies; Antigens; Care and treatment; Data collection; Disease; Drug screening; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Enzymes; Epidemiology; Health aspects; Health facilities; Hepatitis B; Hepatitis B surface antigen; hepatitis b virus; Hepatitis C; Hepatitis C virus; Hepatotoxicity; HIV; HIV (Viruses); Hospitals; Human immunodeficiency virus; Immunosuppressive agents; Infections; Laboratories; Liver; Liver cancer; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Mortality; Nurses; Original Research; Patients; Pulmonary tuberculosis; Questionnaires; Risk factors; Serology; seroprevalence; Standard scores; Statistical analysis; Tuberculosis; Viral infections; Viruses; United Kingdom; Ethiopia; Beijing China; China; pulmonary tuberculosis; hepatitis C virus; seroprevalence; hepatitis B virus
• ISSN: 1178-6973; 1178-6973
• DOI: 10.2147/IDR.S327503

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are hepatotropic viruses whose primary replication occurs in the liver. Despite the significant clinical importance of early screening of hepatitis B and C virus infection in decreasing the hepatotoxicity effect of anti-tuberculosis drugs, screening of hepatitis B and C virus among tuberculosis (TB) patients before treatment has not been practiced in Ethiopia. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence and associated factors of HBV and HCV infections among pulmonary TB (PTB) patients attending health facilities in Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia.
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 145 bacteriologically confirmed PTB patients from January 1 to May 30, 2019. After obtaining a signed informed consent from each participant, data on socio-demographic, clinical, and associated factors were collected using a structured pre-tested questionnaire. Besides, a blood sample was collected to determine HBsAg and HCV antibodies by enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA). The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 21. A Fisher's exact test was used to see the relationship between dependent and independent variables, and a p-value ≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Out of the 145 PTB patients screened, 5 (3.4%) patients tested positive for HBsAg, yet none of them were found to be positive for anti-HCV. Besides, the proportion of HIV-positive was 12 (8.3%). History of hospital admission (P= 0.005), tattooing (P= 0.009) and dental extraction (P=0.003) were significantly associated with HBsAg.
Although anti-HCV antibodies were not detected, the prevalence of HBV was relatively high in tuberculosis patients. This study highlights the need for the introduction of routine screening of viral hepatitis markers for all TB patients before anti-TB treatment for better management of patients. Likewise, further clinical and epidemiological studies are needed.