Prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection among jaundiced children in Pakistan

Objective: aim: to determine theprevalence of hepatitis b virus (hbv) among jaundiced children admitted in pediatric unit of jinnah hospital lahore. study ddesign: cross-sectional study. study dduration: aug. 2016 to feb. 2017 materials and methods: a total number of 280 children with diagnosis of jaundice having age 1 to 15 years were included. blood samples were takenand were sent to the central laboratory of the hospital for elisa test. data analysis was carried out using spss v16.seropositivity of hepatitis b virus antigenwas presented as frequency and percentage. chi-square test was applied to determine the association of age groups and gender with hbv infection,taking p-value <0.05 as significant difference. results: the mean age of children in this study was 8.66±4.00 years. there were 179(63.9%) males and 101(36.1%) females. the mean duration of jaundice in this study was 14.9±12.21 days. the mean serum bilirubin levels in jaundice patients were 8.09±2.91mg/dl. hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection was diagnosed in 51(18.2%) patients. there were 38(21.2%) males and only 13(12.9%) females who were positive for hepatitis b virus antigen (p-value 0.05). conclusion: a higher rate of seropositivity of hepatitis b virus (18.2%) is found in children of jaundice. hbv is more common among males as compared to females.