Several strategies have been developed to reduce hepatitis B infections. These include antenatal screening, universal immunisation of newborns and immunoglobulin therapy for babies who are at risk. Antenatal screening for hepatitis B is not routinely performed, but all newborns in Malaysia are immunised against hepatitis B. We assessed the prevalence of hepatitis B and the factors associated with it among antenatal mothers in Ipoh. This information is useful in decision-making for future hepatitis B screening programmes for antenatal mothers, allowing for immunoglobulin therapies for newborns if their mother's hepatitis B virus (HBV) status is known.
This study aimed at investigating the maternal characteristics that in turn influence the immunological status of infants in asymptomatic enteric pathogen carriers in mother baby pairs (MBPs) in a high HIV burdened population in Harare, Zimbabwe. BIOPLEX immunoassay was used to analyse serum samples from 39 MBPs for 27 cytokines and 6 immunoglobulins. The MBP were purposively selected based on HIV infection and Entamoeba histolytica carriage. Logistic regression was used to identify any link between maternal demographic and clinical data with infant cytokine and immunoglobulin levels. Maternal E. histolytica carriers were more likely to have infants with low levels of IL-12p70, FGF-basic, GM-CSF and TNF-α cytokines (OR: 0.14; 95% CI: 0.03-0.79) and high levels of IgA immunoglobulin (OR: 8.1; 95% CI: 1.45-45.06). HIV infected mothers were more likely to have infants with low levels of IgG2 (OR: 0.24; 95% CI: 0.06-1.00) and IgA (OR: 0.22; 95% CI: 0.05-0.90) immunoglobulins. Notably, it was highly likely to deliver infants with low IgG4 levels (OR: 0.24; 95% CI: 0.06-1.02) for maternal mean age above 30.38 years (Standard deviation 6.09) though not significant (p=0.05). Maternal E. histolytica asymptomatic carriage, and HIV-infection status result in low levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-12p70, FGF-basic, GM-CSF and TNF-α and immunoglobulins IgG2, IgG4 and IgA on their infants.