PREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS B VIRUS INFECTION SEROLOGIC MARKERS AND GENOTYPES AMONG STUDENTS OF NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY, KEFFI, NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Hepatitis B virus infection has emerged as a major public health problem throughout the world. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of HBV infection serologic markers and genotypes among students of Nasarawa State University Keffi. Blood samples were collected at the University Medical Centre from 350 consenting newly admitted students of the 2015/2016 academic session who were there for medical clearance. The sera were screened for HBsAg, HBsAb, HBcAb, HBeAg and HBeAb using 5-panel HBV profiling diagnostic kits (Qingdad high top biotech co. Ltd, Hangzhou, China). All sera positive for HBsAg, HBeAg or both were further genotyped by PCR using type-specific primers. Of the 350 students screened, 9.7% (34) were positive for HBsAg, 38.3% (134) for HBsAb, 28.0% (98) for HBcAb, 3.7% (13) for HBeAg and 4.6% (16) for HBeAb. The pattern of occurrence of these markers showed that 1.1% of the students had chronic HBV infection, 2.6% had acute form of the infection and 4.6% were carriers of the virus but replicating at low rate. The overall prevalence of non-exposed (susceptible), immuned and infected students was recorded as 52.0%, 39.7% and 8.3% respectively. There was significant association between gender, marital status, history of blood transfusion, multiple sex partners, sharing of sharp objects, alcohol consumption and scarification mark with HBV infection (p˂0.05). However, age, sharing of clothes and bed space and history of HBV infection in the family were not associated with the infection (p>0.05). The study also showed the circulation of genotype A (13.8%), B (34.5%) and E (44.8%) among the students. In addition, there was a relatively high prevalence of mixed infection of genotypes B and E (6.9%) all of which occurred in students who were chronically infected. The seroprevalence of 9.7% for HBsAg in this study confirmed the endemnicity of the virus in the population as per WHO classification. This is a cause for alarm especially that this population was thought to be apparently healthy.