Asian Journal of Biology

Hepatitis B virus infection is caused by Hepatitis B virus, and the virus can be transmitted from infected mother to her new born child during pregnancy. This research work was aimed at determining the prevalence of Hepatitis B virus among pregnant women attending ante-natal clinic (ANC) in General Hospital Argungu. 300 serum samples were assayed using Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) Rapid Test Strip manufactured by Lab ACON Hangzhou Biotest Biotech Co., Ltd. 38 (12.7%) of the participants have antibodies to HBV. From the research the highest prevalence of HBsAg was found among the age group 20 – 29 years and lowest among the age group of 30 – 39 years. 2^nd trimester (4 – 6 months) had the highest prevalence rate of 11.3%, followed by 3^rd trimester (7 – 9 months) with 1.3%, while the 1^st trimester (1 – 3 months) had zero prevalence (0%). Those that shared sharp objects had the prevalence of 4.6%. Those that had blood transfusion had prevalence of 1.0% while those that are unvaccinated had the highest prevalence of 12.3%. The family type or status i.e. monogamy or polygamy, from the three hundred subjects screened, two hundred and thirty nine family type of the subjects were monogamous and sixty one were polygamous which represent 11.2% and 18.0% respectively. It was observed that fifty had primary education, two hundred and thirty six had secondary education, twenty had tertiary education and ninety four had informal education. Those that had secondary education had the highest prevalence of 7.0% while those with primary education have the least prevalence with 1.0%. This study shows that there are tendencies of vertical transmission from these infected mothers to their new born babies. It is therefore recommended that more studies with advance technology such as PCR should be encouraged and more research should be conducted on a large population in other states of the country so as to establish the endemicity of HBV.