The
incidence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) among pregnant women in Vietnam has been
increasing in recent years and timely detection is necessary to prevent it from
being transmitted from mothers to newborns, says a health expert.
Dr Ngo Minh Xuan, Chairman of the Prenatal and
Neonatal Association of HCM City (PaNaH), said at a conference on Saturday that
it was very important that pregnant women get themselves screened for HBV in
the first sixth months of pregnancy.
The conference dealt with issues on healthcare
for mothers and infants.
Women could be infected with HBV before or at
any phase during pregnancy, Xuan said, adding between 80 and 90 per cent of
pregnant women infected with the virus did not display hepatitis symptoms.
He said 90 per cent of newborns infected with
HBV from their mothers carried a high risk of contracting chronic hepatitis and
liver cancer before they are 10 years old.
He advised pregnant women with chronic
hepatitis to use specialised drugs for hepatitis treatment like Lamivudine in
the latter half of their pregnancy to try and prevent prenatal HBV
transmission.
Hepatitis B was one of the world's most common
and serious infectious diseases, he said.
If pregnant women were found out to be
infected with HBV early through the screening process, active steps can be
taken to prevent the virus from being transmitted to the their newborns by
having them vaccinated at birth, he said.
This method helped 80 per cent of neonates
worldwide from having HBV transmitted through their mothers, he said.
Xuan advised that newborns of HBV-carrying
mothers should receive hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of delivery in order
to interrupt transmission after delivery.
They should be given the second dose of the
vaccine when the infant is a month old, and two remaining doses administered
over the next two months.
Nearly 400 million people are chronic carriers
of HBV worldwide, and the virus is the leading cause of hepatocellular
carcinoma (liver cancer) and cirrhosis, according to the World Health
Organisation (WHO).
WHO also estimates that around two million
people die due to this disease every year.
In Vietnam alone, nearly 12 million people
were currently infected with HBV. Among them, the rate of pregnant women was 10-15
per cent, Xuan said.
Many HBV-carrying mothers are worried about
the influence of the mode of delivery (natural, C-section and other methods)
and breastfeeding on HBV transmission to their newborns, French doctor Philippe
Condominas said.
Research shows that the mode of delivery did
not have significant effect on HBV transmission, he added.
Breastfeeding posed no additional risk for
transmission from HBV-carrying mothers to their neonates because mother's milk
contained antibodies including immunoglobulines and lactoferrines, he said.
It is advisable for pregnant women with
chronic hepatitis to have amniocentesis (the testing of amniotic fluid for
genetic abnormalities in the fetus) done to check their health.
The amniocentesis procedure was safe and carried
very low risk of the foetus getting infected with HBV, Condominas said.
Pregnancy would change the HBsAg and HBeAg
status in women infected with hepatitis, so they should have their health
tested again after delivery.
The conference, organised by PaNaH in
co-operation with Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital under the sponsorship of Humana
Vietnam Co Ltd, attracted the participation of more than 300 paediatricians
from HCM City and neighbouring provinces.
The News Desk in Ho Chi Minh/Viet Nam News |
ANN
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