Seroprevalence of HIV, Hepatitis B and Syphilis among Pregnant Women in Rivers State, Nigeria

Introduction: Human immunodeficiency virus, Hepatitis B Virus and Syphilis in pregnancy increases the risk of maternal morbidity and mortality, and also pose a risk to the fetus due to mother to child transmission. Aim: This work was aimed at determining the sero-prevalence of HIV, HBV and Syphilis amongst pregnant women in Rivers State, Nigeria. Method: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Rivers State from 1st January 2015 – 31st December 2023. A total of 16,605 pregnant women were seen during the study period. A pretested data extraction form was used to obtain information on the socio demographic status, screening for HIV, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and syphilis from the antenatal record registrar. The data were computed into Microsoft Excel 2016 spreadsheet and analyzed with the IBM SPSS Version 26. The results were presented in tables. Results: A total of 16605 pregnant women were seen at the antenatal clinic of RSUTH, Port Harcourt, between 2015 and 2023. The mean age was 31.61 years, with age range of 15-58 years. The age group of 26 to 35 years comprised 67.2% of the participants while participants aged more than 45 years comprised 0.4%. Out of 16605 antenatal women, 804 were HIV positive giving a seroprevalence rate of 4.8%, HBV infection had a prevalence of 1.2%, while the prevalence of syphilis was 0.1%. Conclusion: The observed prevalence of HIV, HBV and syphilis in this study was 4.8%,1.2% and 0.1% respectively. The findings of this study could have important public health implications as there is a continued decline in the seroprevalence when compared to similar studies in our locality thus revealing an increase in the uptake of the opt-out screening programmes in pregnancy. Thus, routine screening and treatment during pregnancy should be encouraged to further reduce the risk of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality.