Prevalence of hepatitis B e antigen in pregnant women and patients with liver disease.

Knowledge of HBeAg status is important in pregnant women to decide immunoprophylaxis to the infant and to decide therapy in patients with HBsAg positive chronic active hepatitis. Two thousand pregnant women were tested for HBsAg by the Hoechst IHA Cellognost Kit. Those who were HBsAg positive were tested for HBeAg by ELISA (Hoechst). One hundred consecutive HBsAg positive patients admitted in hospital were tested for HBeAg by Elisa (Abott). The prevalence of HBsAg and HBeAg in pregnant women was 5% (100/2000) and 12% (12/100) respectively. The prevalence of HBeAg in the 100 consecutive HBsAg positive patients with liver diseas was 30% (14/46) in acute viral hepatitis and 52% (28/54) in chronic liver disease. Routine screening of all pregnant women in the third trimester for HBsAg and immunoprophylaxis to infants of BHeAg positive mothers atleast is immediately recommended.