Journal of Clinical and Experimental Investigations

Abstract

Objective: Hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are viruses that can be transmitted to the health care work­ers by infected body fluids and from mother to the baby before, during or after delivery. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of hepatitis B surface antigens (HBsAg), hepatitis C antibodies (anti-HCV), and HIV antibodies (anti-HIV) in pregnant women and/or pa­tients with gynecologic diseases that admit to a university hospital in Bolu.
Methods: HBsAg, anti-HCV, and anti-HIV results of the pregnant women and/or patients with gynecologic diseas­es that admitted to the obstetrics and gynecology clinics between January 2006 and June 2012 were retrospec­tively investigated. All markers were tested in the micro­biology laboratory of our hospital by using macro ELISA method (Axsyme and Architect i2000SR systems, Abbott Diagnostics, Chicago, IL, USA).
Results: The frequency of HBsAg, anti-HCV, and anti- HIV positivity were 1.8%, 0.5%, and 0% in pregnant wom­en and 1.9%, 1.1%, and 0% in patients with gynecologic diseases, respectively.
Conclusion: The frequencies detected in our hospital are at low levels as seen in developed countries. Since there is no effective method of prevention especially from HCV, awareness of this serologic result before high risk proce­dures will enable the doctors and the health care workers to take extensive measures to prevent the transmission of the disease.