Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B Virus e Antigen among Blood Donors in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

Hepatitis B which is a necro-inflammatory liver disease of variable severity and continues to be a major health problem worldwide despite efforts to curtail its spread especially in developing countries. Four hundred and fifty (450) consenting blood donors residing in Kaduna state were recruited for this study. Two (2mls) of the donor’s blood was collected and screened for HBsAg using RDT kits. Positive samples were further screened for HBeAg and HBeAb using ELISA kits. Data were analyzed using SPSS (20.0) for statistical significance at p≤0.05. The prevalence obtained for HBsAg among the 450 blood donors was 14.2% with 45.3% being males while 54.7% were females. 26.6% were positive for HBeAg while 15.6% were positive for HBeAb. Age group 17-26 years had the highest prevalence of 37.5%. The finding of this study reflects a pool of individuals who may be highly infectious and serve in sustaining viral transmission and evolution in the study area.