Hepatitis B infection in the rural area of Dschang, Cameroon: seroprevalence and associated factors

Abstract

Introduction: viral hepatitis B remains a major public health problem around the world, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries. Cameroon shows a grate variability in prevalence of this infection in the country and even within different populations groups. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with viral hepatitis B infection in the rural area of Dschang.

Methods: we conducted a cross-sectional community-based study, involving 551 participants of both genders recruited by a voluntary sampling technique. The biological diagnosis of HBsAg was done by the Immunochromatographic method (PKL^® kit of PARAMEDICAL srl laboratories). Positive cases were confirmed by ELISA method (reagent Kit from DIALAB Laboratories).

Results: results show a Viral Hepatitis B prevalence of 5.08% (95% CI: 3.2-6.9). University students were the most infected (11/88) with a positivity rate of 12.50% (95%CI: 5.6-19.4). Only 29/551 participants (5.26%) had received at least one dose of vaccine against the disease and were less infected (3.44%) than the others (5.17%). Age (p=0.000), level of education (p=0.013), occupation (p=0.002), belief in the traditional healing of hepatitis B (p=0.000) and knowledge about the disease and its contamination roads (p=0.049) were associated with viral hepatitis B.

Conclusion: there is a need of intensifying awareness, education, routine screening and vaccination of the population, especially in schools and university milieu to better counteract the infection with hepatitis B virus in our local Communities.