Frequency of pregnant HBV/HCV carriers and status of their internal medicine consultation: A nationwide survey in Japan

TL;DR

This study found that about 0.2% of pregnant women in Japan carry hepatitis B or C, with higher rates in non-Japanese women and teenagers, and only about two-thirds receive proper medical consultations.

Contribution

The study provides the first nationwide survey on pregnant HBV/HCV carriers in Japan and their consultation rates.

Findings

HBV prevalence was 0.14% in Japanese and 3.00% in non-Japanese pregnant women.

Teenage Japanese women had a significantly higher HBV rate (0.53%) compared to adults.

Only 64.8–69.2% of HBV and 10.5–69.2% of HCV carriers received internal medicine consultations.

Abstract

The present study investigated the prevalence of pregnant hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) carriers and their internal medicine consultation rates in Japan.

A questionnaire was sent to 1931 delivery facilities regarding their delivery management policies and care of pregnant HBV and HCV carriers who delivered between January and December 2023, including internal medicine consultation rates.

Responses were received from 1077 facilities (55.8%). The prevalence of HBV was 0.14% in Japanese women (406/288847) and 3.00% (196/6527) in non‐Japanese women. The prevalence of HBV in 12 Japanese teenagers (≤19 years) was 0.53%, which was significantly higher than that in adult pregnant women (0.14%) (p < 0.001). HBe antigen was positive in 12.6% of pregnant HBV carriers. The overall prevalence of HCV was 0.23% (684/295374), with similar rates in Japanese and non‐Japanese women (0.23% vs. 0.31%), and 3.1% (21/684) had high HCV‐RNA levels. Internal medicine consultations were performed on 64.8% (295/455) of known HBV carriers before pregnancy and on 66.7% (98/147) of those diagnosed during pregnancy. Regarding HCV, consultation rates were 10.5% (68/645) before pregnancy and 69.2% (27/39) during pregnancy.

The prevalence of pregnant hepatitis virus carriers in Japan is approximately 0.2% for both HBV and HCV, with a high HBV rate in teenagers. Only 60%–70% of patients receive proper internal medicine consultations, highlighting the need for increased awareness among patients, physicians, and healthcare systems.