Hospitals in major European countries may be failing to implement procedures that can prevent transmission of hepatitis B infection from mother to baby, a major conference has heard.
The majority of hospitals in a survey involving ten countries, including the UK, were failing to provide antiviral treatment to HBV positive women in the final trimester of pregnancy.
Senior physicians from 76 hospitals took part in the survey reported to the World Congress of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, hosted in Geneva.
The survey found 53% of hospitals undertook screening in the first trimester, 1% in the second trimester and 46% in the third trimester.
Fewer than half of centres undertook HBV testing of infants after infection – even though up to 20% may acquire the virus in spite of vaccination, the researchers say.
This could lead to infected children not being diagnosed, they say. The survey was undertaken in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Macedonia, UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria.
Researcher Michele Pinon, from the University of Turin, Italy, said: “This survey provides a strong indication that significant variance and gaps exist in hospital policies and procedures to prevent direct mother-to-child transmission of HBV across Europe. There is a clear need to implement a multidisciplinary clinical pathway involving obstetricians, neonatologists, and hepatologists, with a stronger connection between the phases before, during and after birth.”
Another researcher Professor Giuseppe Indolfi, who chairs the hepatology committee of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, said:
“The disjointed and inconsistent nature of practices for prevention of HBV vertical transmission across Europe revealed by this survey is a considerable cause for concern. Procedures must be rectified as soon as possible as we build towards achieving the WHO goal to eradicate the threat of viral hepatitis by 2030.”
Pinon, M., et al. 2021. Hospital policies and practices to prevent vertical transmission of Hepatitis B virus infection: a European survey. Presented at the 6th World Congress of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.
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