Trend Analysis of Hepatitis B and C Among Patients Visiting Health Facility of Tigrai, Ethiopia, 2014-2019

Abstract Background: Hepatitis B and C viruses are the major public health concerns of the globe. The two hepatotropic viruses share common modes of transmission and their co-infection is common. Despite the provision of an effective prevention mechanism, the infections caused by these viruses’ remains a significant problem worldwide, particularly among the developing countries like Ethiopia.Methods: Institutional based retrospective study design was conducted from January 2014 to December 2019 from documented serology laboratory logbooks and patient charts at the serology laboratory of Adigrat general hospital, Tigrai, Ethiopia. The collected data were checked for completeness on daily based, coded, entered and cleaned using Epinfo version 7.1 and exported and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Binary logistic regression analysis and Chi-square test (X2) were used to assess the association between dependent and independent variables. The corresponding variables with P-value (P <0.05) with a 95% confidence interval were considered as statistically significant. Results: Out of 20935 clinically suspected specimens tested for hepatitis B and C viruses with total completeness of 20622 were included in this study with a total completeness 98.5%. The overall prevalence of hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus was found to be 3.57 % (689/19,273) and 2.13% (30/1,405) respectively. The positivity rate of hepatitis B virus was 8.0% (106/1317) and 3.24% (583/17,956) among males and females respectively. Additionally, 2.49 %( 12/481) of males and 1.94% (18/924) females were positive for hepatitis C virus infection. The overall prevalence of co-infection for both hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus was 7.4% (4/54). Sex and age were significantly associated with hepatitis B and C virus infection. Conclusions: The overall prevalence of hepatitis B and C is low intermediate according to the WHO criteria. Both hepatitis B and C share similar routes of transmission and affects all age and male sex. Therefore, awareness creation of the community about the methods of transmission, education about prevention, and control of hepatitis B and C virus infection, improving coverage of youth-friendly services in the health facilities should be strengthened.