The number of newborns infected with Hepatitis B may be twice as high as HIV in sub-Saharan Africa

While the risk of mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B is well documented in Asia, data regarding the situation in Africa are still scarce. In an article published in the Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics journal, Epidemiologists from Institut Pasteur, Ecole Pasteur/CNAM de Santé Publique (Paris) and Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (Dublin), estimate that more than 360,000 infants in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HBV at birth each year. This figure is almost twice the annual number of newborn perinatally infected with HIV in this region (around 190,000 per year).

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