A low proportion of HBeAg among HBsAg-positive pregnant women with known HIV status could suggest low perinatal transmission of HBV in Cameroon.

BACKGROUND: Transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) from HBV-positive mothers to their infants is common and usually occurs when the mother is hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive and/or has a high HBV DNA load. In this study, we determined the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and HBeAg among pregnant women with known HIV status. FINDINGS: A total of 650 pregnant women with a mean age of 26.2 years including 301 HIV-positives and 349 HIV-negatives were screened for HBsAg (Monolisa AgHBs Plus Biorad, France). Among the HBsAg-positives, HBeAg and anti-HBe were tested (Monolisa Ag HBe Plus Biorad, France). Overall, 51 (7.85%) were positive for HBsAg. The prevalence of HBsAg was not statistically different between HIV-positive and HIV-negative pregnant women [28/301 (9.3%) vs 23/349 (6.59%); p = 0.2]. None of the 45 HBsAg-positive samples was reactive for HBeAg. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates a high prevalence of HBsAg with very low proportion of HBeAg in Cameroonian pregnant women. Since perinatal transmission of HBV is mostly effective when the mother is also HBeAg-positive, our data could suggest that perinatal transmissions play a minor role in HBV prevalence in Cameroon. In line with previous African studies, these findings further suggests that horizontal transmission could be the most common mechanism of HBV infections in Cameroon.

An antiretroviral drug-naïve human immunodeficiency virus-1 infected woman with a persistent non-reactive proviral deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase chain reaction: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: Replication of the human immunodeficiency virus involves an obligatory step of reverse transcription of the viral ribonucleic acid genome into a double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid, and subsequent integration of the deoxyribonucleic acid into the human chromatin to form the proviral deoxyribonucleic acid. This proviral human immunodeficiency virus deoxyribonucleic acid is a critical marker for the diagnosis of acute infections, mother-to-child transmissions and for the confirmation of indeterminate serological reactions. We describe a case of a human immunodeficiency virus positive woman, naïve to antiretroviral treatment, who was persistently negative for human immunodeficiency virus proviral deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase chain reaction. This observation, to the best of our knowledge, is the first time that it has been described in Africa. CASE PRESENTATION: A 28-year-old Gabonese woman living in Cameroon requested a human immunodeficiency virus diagnosis in our laboratory. She had an unprotected heterosexual contact 6 months earlier while on vacation in Gabon. The request for a human immunodeficiency virus test was as a result of apprehensions developed after the exposure episode. Human immunodeficiency virus serological examinations were ambiguous and confirmatory tests (including human immunodeficiency virus proviral deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase chain reaction) were carried out. Apart from the human immunodeficiency virus proviral deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase chain reaction that was persistently negative, all other polymerase chain reactions carried out were positive. The deoxyribonucleic acid sequences have been submitted to the GenBank database with accession numbers: KC626022, KC626023 and KC626024 for the protease, reverse transcriptase and gp41 genes respectively. CONCLUSION: The persistently negative human immunodeficiency virus proviral deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase chain reaction in a person with a confirmed human immunodeficiency virus infection is of immense importance in the human immunodeficiency virus diagnostic field. This could highlight the fact that cases of false negative human immunodeficiency virus proviral deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase chain reactions exist especially with the high genetic variations observed with human immunodeficiency virus. The challenges presented by such false negative tests in the identification of acute infections, mother-to-child transmissions and the confirmation of indeterminate serological reactions are daunting. These data therefore would be invaluable especially to clinicians in Africa where non-B human immunodeficiency virus subtypes circulate.