Medics alarmed over increased cases of hepatitis infection

Kenya: Researchers at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) have raised the alarm over increased cases of Hepatitis B, an infectious virus, in the country.

Kemri’s head of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Research programme Elijah Songok has said statistics indicate that the prevalence rate of Hepatitis B (HBV) is approximately 10 per cent among pregnant women, and more than 30 per cent among liver clinic attendees.

The modes of transmission are similar to HIV and include sexual transmission, contaminated blood products and mother-to-child transmission.

In the past two years, the prevalence of HBV among blood donors has been rising, surpassing the prevalence of HIV three-fold.

Last year, about 1,200 blood donations out of approximately 150,000 screened were found to be HIV-positive compared to 3,000 that were HBV-positive.

“Given that blood donors are a very highly selected population, researchers and stakeholders now contend that the prevalence in the general population may be much higher,” said Prof Songok.

This should be a cause for alarm, as similar high data is being registered among HIV infected persons, showing a rising prevalence of co-infection with HBV.

Co-infected persons have an increased rate of liver disease, higher HBV and HIV viral loads, and poor response to anti-retroviral drugs.

“It is important that HIV infected persons seek HBV testing,” said the researcher.

If untreated, HBV may lead to liver cirrhosis and other liver cancers. This trend is consistent with the global picture, where it is one of the most common viral infections.

It is estimated worldwide that two billion people have been exposed to the virus, of whom 150 million are chronically infected.

However, HBV is 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV and health workers who get to needle stick injuries accidently have a much higher chance of infection from HBV than from HIV.