Tenofovir-DF Therapy Prevents Hepatitis B Vertical Transmission
Chronic hepatitis B affects nearly 246 million individuals worldwide including 5 million children younger than 5 years old. A sentinel element towards global elimination of hepatitis B is to prevent vertical transmission. Maternal antiviral therapy with tenofovir in combination with infant HBV vaccination and HBV Immunoglobulin (HBIg) at birth is standard of care for high viremic mothers. However, HBIg is not readily accessible in most parts of the world. Principal Investigator at New Discovery aimed to test if maternal antiviral treatment during gestation accompanied by infant HBV vaccination at birth prevented vertical transmission. The study results show that this HBIg-free strategy is comparable in effectiveness with the standard of care and can help resource-limited countries afford the protection of infants against vertical transmission of HBV.
Publication: 2024 JAMA HBIg free RCT
Reduction of Vertical HBV Transmission in Uganda
More than one-quarter of the world’s hepatitis B patients live in Africa where an estimated 3.1 million children 5 years or younger has hepatitis B. Uganda is one of few countries in the continent whose government is committed to upgrade national care to prevent and control HBV infection, with special attention on preventing vertical transmission by offering free testing to all expecting mothers and birth-dose HBV vaccine to all infants born to HBsAg positive mothers. Expanding upon this national policy, CDA Foundation (USA) conducted a pilot study by providing antiviral treatment to expecting mothers with high HBV viral load. The results show that absolute prevention of HBV transmission is achievable only if antiviral is provided to all expecting mothers including those with lower viral load. This work is done in collaboration with Uganda medical experts and health ministry.