Serological and virological profile of patients with chronic hepatitis B infection in Eritrea (original) (raw)

2020, International journal of clinical virology

Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major global public health threat especially in developing countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in 2015, about 60 million Africans were living with chronic HBV infection [1]. Most African countries fall within the high endemicity regions [2]. Infection with HBV is usually acquired through perinatal or childhood exposure to the virus, contaminated blood transfusions or unprotected sexual contact [3] and progresses to long-term HBV infection in about 15% to 40% of cases depending on viral and host factors [4,5]. Although chronic HBV infection is commonly asymptomatic, an estimated 15% to 25% of patients will die from disease progression and complication such as liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)[4].