Hepatitis B Chronic Infection clinical trials

Tenofovir As Prevention Of Hepatitis b Mother-to-child Transmission

The World Health Organization recommends that all high endemic countries for HBV infection based their mother to child transmission prevention strategies on vaccination of all children and administration of immunoglobulins (HBIG) to infants born to infected mothers in the first 24 hours after birth. Lack of access to antenatal screening and to HBIG significantly results in failure of this strategy in many countries. Moreover, despite sero-vaccination, 10 to 15% of infants of mothers that are positive for HBsAg and HBeAg are still infected, as high levels of HBV replication occurring in the third quarter of pregnancy act as a major risk factor. The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of an operational strategy to prevent HBV mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) in Cambodia based on the use of rapid tests HBs Ag and HBe Ag to screen HBV infection and a treatment by TDF for patients with a positive HBeAg test with a "test and treat" strategy for those seen for Antenatal Care (ANC) from 24 weeks of amenorrhea. In all cases, vaccination of the newborn will be carried out according to the national protocol in Cambodia i.e. 4 injections at 24 hours, 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age. A phase IV multicenter observational and interventional non randomized prospective study will be conducted in 4 maternity in Cambodia. The primary outcome will be the proportion of active HBV infection in new-born at 6 months of life estimated by HBs Ag positivity. The study will aim to document the acceptability and the operational implementation of the study using rapid tests usable in all health centers and a drug available in all the country thanks to HIV national program. The results will be helpful for Cambodian government in order to implement guidelines and algorithm follow-up for HBV-infected pregnant women.