Incidence of HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and their Co-infections among Pregnant Women Attending Selected General Hospitals in Ondo State

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections cause chronic hepatitis in humans. The co-infections of these viruses with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have increased the burden, especially in the resource-poor nations of the world. In this study we determine the burden of HBV and/ or HCV with HIV among pregnant women attending selected General Hospitals in Ondo State, Nigeria. The sera of consented subjects were collected and screened for the presence of HBV using enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kits while HIV was detected using WHO approved rapid kit and its confir-mation was done with Western blot assay. Out of two thousand, nine hundred ninety-eight (2.998) pregnant women screened, the numbers positive for HBV (HBsAg), HCV (antibody) and HIV (antibody) were 60, 54 and 28, respectively. The highest HIV seroprevalence was detected among women in the age group of 35- 39 years. The seroprevalence of co-infections HBV and HCV was 0.07 % while those of HIV and HBV, and HIV and HCV were 0.03 % each. None of the subjects had the three viruses. The difference in demographic characteristics of the study population in the study areas might explain the varying results observed in this study. Pregnant women should not only be screened for HIV but also for both Hepatitis B and C infections during their first ante-natal visit.