Prevalence of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen and Its Effects on Some Haematological Parameters among Blood Donors in North-Western Nigeria

Abstract

Hepatitis B is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world and a majorproblem. In addition to the hepatic pathology, extra-hepatic abnormalities are not unusual. One of the most frequently identified extra-hepatic abnormalities often seen at the time of diagnosis of acute viral hepatitis is the haematological abnormality. This is because every patient with acute viral hepatitis of necessity will require a full blood count to exclude bacterial sepsis as a cause of liver disease. This study was carried out to determine the haematological abnormalities associated with viral hepatitis.About 5mls of blood was collected from each of the 450 blooddonors recruited for the study across the three geo-political zones of Kaduna state, Nigeria.All 450 blood samples were screened for HBsAg and haematological parameters.The percentage prevalence for HBsAg was 14.2%.The result of the haematological parameters revealed that monocytes had statistical significance to HBsAg positivity (p =0.02). Leucopaenia was highly associated with the blood donors positive for HBsAg.The prevalence of HBsAg found from this study indicates that hepatitis B is still highly endemic in the study area despite the availability of an effective vaccine. The study also found that differential cells count has no statistical association with HBV infection though the infection influences the proliferation of these haematological cells. The study recommends that patients with leucopaenia should be followed for early detection of serious haematological complications even after recovery from the acute state.