Abstract:

Background and Objectives: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major global health problem in many parts of the world including Tanzania. It can cause chronic infection which increases morbidity and mortality from cirrhosis and hepatocullar carcinoma among human immune deficiency virus (HIV) patients. Despite being common in Tanzania and the fact they share transmission routes with HIV, there is paucity of data on its magnitude among HIV infected individuals. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of HBV among HIV infected individual attending Care and Treatment Center (CTC) at Geita Regional Hospital.

Methodology: A cross sectional hospital based study involving 161 HIV infected adults was other relevant information was collected using structured data collection tool. Detection of HBV surface antigen was done using immunochromatographic test (Wondfo one step HBsAg, China) as per manufacturer’s instructions. Data analysis will be done using STATA version 13 as per study objectives.

Results: The median age of the enrolled patients was 41 (IQR: 32-46) years. The prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) among HIV seropositive patients was found to be 11 (6.8%, 95% CI: 2.9-10.7). None of the factors tested was found to be associated with HBsAg positivity among adult HIV infected patients at Geita regional hospital.

Conclusion and recommendation: About 7 out of a hundred HIV seropositive patients have acute Hepatitis B virus infection in Geita which falls under moderate endemicity status as per world health organization categories. This calls for the need to put more emphasis on the control interventions.