Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb 23;21(1):394.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10428-1.

Hepatitis B prevalence and incidence in the fishing communities of Lake Victoria, Uganda: a retrospective cohort study

Paul Kato Kitandwe  1 , Enoch Muyanja  2 , Teddy Nakaweesa  2 , Annet Nanvubya  2 , Ali Ssetaala  2 , Juliet Mpendo  2 , Brenda Okech  2 , Bernard S Bagaya  3 , Noah Kiwanuka  4 , Matt A Price  5   6
Affiliations

Hepatitis B prevalence and incidence in the fishing communities of Lake Victoria, Uganda: a retrospective cohort study

Paul Kato Kitandwe et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: Hepatitis B is a serious potentially fatal hepatocellular disease caused by the hepatitis B virus. In the fishing communities of Lake Victoria Uganda, the hepatitis B virus infection burden is largely unknown. This study assessed the prevalence and incidence of hepatitis B in these communities.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study that tested serum samples collected from 13 to 49-year-old study participants that were residing in two Ugandan Lake Victoria fishing communities of Kasenyi (a mainland) and Jaana (an island). The samples were collected between 2013 and 2015 during the conduct of an HIV epidemiological cohort study in these communities. A total of 467 twelve-month follow-up and 50 baseline visit samples of participants lost to follow-up were tested for hepatitis B serological markers to determine prevalence. To determine hepatitis B virus incidence, samples that were hepatitis B positive at the follow-up visit had their baseline samples tested to identify hepatitis B negative samples whose corresponding follow-up samples were thus incident cases.

Results: The baseline mean age of the 517 study participants was 31.1 (SD ± 8.4) years, 278 (53.8%) of whom were females. A total of 36 (7%) study participants had hepatitis B virus infection, 22 (61.1%) of whom were male. Jaana had a higher hepatitis B virus prevalence compared to Kasenyi (10.2% vs 4.0%). In total, 210 (40.6%) study participants had evidence of prior hepatitis B virus infection while 48.6% had never been infected or vaccinated against this disease. A total of 20 (3.9%) participants had results suggestive of prior hepatitis B vaccination. Hepatitis B incidence was 10.5 cases/100PY (95% CI: 7.09-15.53). Being above 25 years of age and staying in Jaana were significant risk factors for hepatitis B virus acquisition (AOR 1.6, 95% CI: 1.1-2.2; p < 0.01 and 1.4, 95% CI: 1.1-1.8; p < 0.01 respectively).

Conclusion: Hepatitis B virus incidence in Lake Victoria fishing communities of Uganda is very high, particularly in the islands. Interventions to lower hepatitis B virus transmission in these communities are urgently needed.

Keywords: HBV incidence; HBV prevalence; Hepatitis B incidence; Hepatitis B prevalence; Lake Victoria fishing communities.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Hepatitis B testing schematic
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Trépo C, Chan HL, Lok A. Hepatitis B virus infection. Lancet. 2014;384(9959):2053–2063. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60220-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organisation. Hepatitis B fact sheet 2019 [updated 18 July 2019. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-b.
    1. Shepard CW, Simard EP, Finelli L, Fiore AE, Bell BP. Hepatitis B virus infection: epidemiology and vaccination. Epidemiol Rev. 2006;28(1):112–125. doi: 10.1093/epirev/mxj009. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Franco E, Bagnato B, Marino MG, Meleleo C, Serino L, Zaratti L. Hepatitis B: epidemiology and prevention in developing countries. World J Hepatol. 2012;4(3):74. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v4.i3.74. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nelson NP, Easterbrook PJ, McMahon BJ. Epidemiology of hepatitis B virus infection and impact of vaccination on disease. Clin Liver Dis. 2016;20(4):607–628. doi: 10.1016/j.cld.2016.06.006. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types