Hepatitis A virus infection among apparently healthy Nigerian Subjects

Abstract

Citation: OkaraGC, Hassan S, Obeagu EI. Hepatitis A virus infection among apparently healthy Nigerian Subjects. J Biomedical Sci. 2017, 6:2. AbstractA study to determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection among apparently healthy Nigerian subjects aged between 2 and 80 years is reported. Serum anti-HAV IgM specific antibody was measured in blood samples of 1532 apparently healthy subjects (1138 males and 394 females) attending Dr. Hassan's Hospital & Diagnostic Centre, Abuja, Nigeria using standard methods. The subjects were clients who visited the hospital for routine health check during a 15-month period from November 2014 to February 2016. The results showed that 1487 (97.06%) were seronegative, 45 (2.94%) were seropositive. There were significantly higher seropositive results for males (2.48%) compared to females (0.46%). The seroprevalence of HAV among the subjects of this study is considerably lower than the previous reports from Nigeria. The lower prevalence in this study could be due to the socioeconomic status of the subjects, who were mainly professionals and their family members. The reduced prevalence could be due to improved food hygiene, immunization and greater awareness among the subjects of the study group. Improvements in hygienic and socio-economic conditions are known factors that result in a decrease in the prevalence of the disease.

Prevalence of Viral Hepatitis Ab and C Infections and Its Assessment on Selected Primary Health Care Clinics in Taraba State, Nigeria.

“…The high prevalence from these previous studies suggests that the research was carried out in a riverine environment where much sea foods are consumed by people, such as shellfish which is an important vehicle responsible for transmission of hepatitis A virus (CFS, 2017) and possibly due to lack of public health sanitation which favours exposure in early childhood. This low prevalence of Hepatitis A virus agrees with the 1.5% reported in Benin (Ogefere and Egbe 2016) and is comparable to the 2.94% reported in Abuja (Okara, et al, 2017). The lower prevalence in Abuja could be due to the high socioeconomic status of the subjects, improved food hygiene, immunization and greater awareness among the subjects of the studied group.…”

Brain-gut-microbiota axis: effect of basil oil on the gut microbiota and its contribution to the anticonvulsant properties

“…Further studies report the use of the essential oil of Ocimum basilicum as an anticonvulsant (Koutroumanidou et al, 2013). Also, previous works have testi ed to the folkloric use of the leaves and/or smoke of Ocimum basilicum in controlling epilepsy (Noumi and Fozi, 2008;Obeagu and Okpara, 2015). The anticonvulsant activity of most essential oils has been linked to their composition.…”

Prevalence of hepatitis A virus in patients attending a referral hospital in Bubanza Province, Northwest Burundi

“…6 However, the findings of a study conducted in Nigerian in 2017 showed that HAV is more in males than in females. 1 Several studies have shown that the number of family members was not associated with the prevalence of HAV. 19,20 These are in agreement with the findings of our study which may be explained by the small size of the participants who lived in families of more than 10 members.…”

“…Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) infection is an important public health problem around the world, especially in low and middle-income regions. 1 Hepatitis A is an acute infection caused by a single-stranded RNA virus of positive polarity called hepatitis A virus. It belongs to the genus hepatovirus of the picornaviridae family.…”