Seroprevalence of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) Infection in Pregnant Women in Sokoto State, Nigeria

The seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus infection among pregnant women attending Antenatal Clinic at specialist hospital, Sokoto, Nigeria was investigated. One hundred and eighty two (182) serum samples from pregnant women aged between 18-45 years were screened for the presence of anti-HEV specific IgG antibody using a commercially available ELISA kits obtained from EUROIMMUN Medical Laboratory Diagnostics AG. Information was obtained from the subjects using a well structured interviewer-administered Questionnaire. Data were entered into SPSS software version 20.0 and analyzed using Chi-square test. An overall prevalence of 18/182(9.9%) was obtained, while the age specific prevalence rates of 11.8%, 17.1%, 4.5%, and 6.2% among the age groups 18-23, 24-29, 30-35, and 36-41 years were recorded respectively. The prevalence rates of the infection at various gestational period of pregnancy were 14.9% and 5.4% at second and third trimester respectively. However, Chi-square test has shown that there was no statistically significant association between HEV infection with age and trimester of pregnancy. Education about environmental and personal hygiene before and during pregnancy may be useful for decreasing the rate of infection in this high risk population.