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ABSTRACT
Hepatitis C infection is a contagious infection that mostly affects the liver; it is caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), it mostly causes chronic liver infection and can also progress to cirrhosis. Hepatitis E is a form of viral hepatitis that manifests as inflammation of the liver due to infection with the hepatitis E virus (HEV). Hepatitis E virus is classically transmitted fecal orally. The aim of this research was to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus and Hepatitis E Virus among pregnant women attending antenatal at University of Benin Teaching Hospital. Ethical approval was obtained and a hospital-based cross-sectional baseline study was carried out. Blood sample were aseptically collected from patients and labeled appropriately, a one-step test was carried out using the HCV test strip. Statistical analyses were carried out using a statistical package of social science (SPSS) version 17.0 for windows. (ANOVA) was done at 95 % confidence interval or 0.05 level of significance for analysis of variance). A total number of 35 pregnant women fell within the ages of 30-34, and 2 positive cases were gotten from the test which happens to fall in the 30-34 age groups. Results obtained from questionnaire revealed that a total number of 60 pregnant women educated and from the awareness aspect, 57 women have awareness of the hepatitis C virus while 44 pregnant women had awareness of the hepatitis E virus. This means, Hepatitis C virus has more awareness compared to the hepatitis E virus. This study has shown that HCV is not an uncommon infection in the Nigerian pregnant population, and its prevalence can be a major concern for neonatal infection in our country.
