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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1507488

The Burden of Hepatitis E Virus Infection Amongst Ghanaian Pregnant Women

Provisionally accepted
Husein Bagulo Husein Bagulo 1,2*Ayodele O Majekodunmi Ayodele O Majekodunmi 1,3Susan Christina Welburn Susan Christina Welburn 1,2Langbong Bimi Langbong Bimi 4
  • 1 Edinburgh Medical School, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  • 2 Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute, Haining, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 3 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Nigeria), Abuja, Nigeria
  • 4 Department of Animal Biology & Conservation Science College of Basic and Applied Sciences University of Ghana, Legon Accra, Ghana

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    HEV poses a significant burden on pregnant women, with associated negative outcomes.Although well-described in many developed countries, the epidemiology of the disease and its impact on maternal and foetal health in Ghana is not fully understood.A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the antenatal clinics of ten district hospitals in five regions of Ghana. The study involved 1000 pregnant women attending antenatal care.Serological and virological assays were employed to determine HEV seroprevalence and prevalence. Logistic regression analysis was carried out in univariate and multivariate models to determine risk factors associated with HEV infection.HEV IgG seroprevalence of 8.3% was recorded amongst the pregnant women with 1% HEVantigen prevalence. However, none were positive for HEV-IgM and HEV RNA. 19.8% of the pregnant women reported poor pregnancy outcomes in previous pregnancies. Age, educational attainment, and region were significant predictors of HEV IgG seropositivity in the univariate regression model, while age and region were the only significant predictors in a multivariate model. Also, the source of drinking water and the type of toilet used accurately predicted HEV IgG seroprevalence in both univariate and multivariate models.Pregnancy care must be greatly improved to reduce maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality.

    Keywords: Hepatitis E virus (HEV), seroprevalence, Risk facors, Pregnant Women, Poor pregnancy outcomes

    Received: 07 Oct 2024; Accepted: 03 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bagulo, Majekodunmi, Welburn and Bimi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Husein Bagulo, Edinburgh Medical School, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

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