Abstract
Introduction:
This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B infection among women attending antenatal clinic in General Hospital, Minna, Niger state.Materials and Methods:
Blood samples were collected from 200 subjects and analyzed using in vitro diagnostic strip designed for the qualitative determination of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) in human serum.Results:
Thirteen (6.5%) out of the 200 subjects investigated were found to be positive for hepatitis B infection. On the basis of age, the distribution of HBV infection among the sub-jects revealed that the age group 20-29 has the highest rate of infection of 10.3% followed in descending order by 40-49 (4.5%), 30-39 (4.2%) and 10-19 (0.0%).conclusion:
Infection rate was found to be related to the low level of awareness and the poor standard of living observed among the subjects. The study therefore highlights the need for an intervention through increased awareness, provision of drugs and immunization in the study area.Keywords
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© 2012, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.