DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2019.v07i07.007

Pages: 2289-2300

Aim: To determine the prevalence of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) among jaundiced children admitted in in the department of Hepatology & Nutrition, Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospital Dhaka, Bangladesh. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Study duration: Aug. 2016 to Feb. 2017. Methods: A total number of 280 children with diagnosis of jaundice having age 1 to 15 years were included. Blood samples were taken and were sent to the central laboratory of the hospital for ELISA test. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS V10. Seropositivity of hepatitis B virus antigen was presented as frequency and percentage. Chi-square test was applied to determine the association of age groups and gender with HBV infection, taking p-value <0.05 as significant difference. Results: The mean age of children in this study was 8.66±4.00 years. There were 179(63.9%) males and 101(36.1%) females. The mean duration of jaundice in this study was 7.9±6.21 days. The mean serum bilirubin levels in jaundice patients were 8.09±2.91mg/dl. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection was diagnosed in 51(18.2%) patients. There were 38(21.2%) males and only 13(12.9%) females who were positive for hepatitis B virus antigen (p-value 0.05). Conclusion: A higher rate of seropositivity of hepatitis B virus (18.2%) is found in children of jaundice. HBV is more common among males as compared to females.