P136 | Analysis of prevalence of hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus serum markers: a longitudinal study in a cohort of pregnant women from north-western Italy

Premises and Purpose of the study: Mother-to-child transmission is still considered a major factor in the spread of hepatitis viruses. Nevertheless, epidemiological data on hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in reproductive-age women are limited. Moreover, the changing migration patterns dramatically involving Italy in the last decades may have modified this trend. Our aim was to investigate the prevalence of HBV and HCV markers in a large cohort of pregnant women admitted to a tertiary Obstetric Department in Northern Italy.Materials and Methods: Data concerning 33862 pregnant women consecutively admitted to Novara University Hospital from January 2006 to December 2022 were retrospectively collected.Results: An increasing prevalence of subjects born outside abroad (from 116 countries) was found over the years. The overall positivity for both HBV s-antigen (HBsAg) and antibodies to HCV (anti-HCV) was low (0.9% and 0.1%, respectively). HBsAg (2.5 vs. 0.4%) and anti-HCV (0.9 vs. 0.4%) prevalence were higher in non-Italian than in Italian women. Non-Italian HBsAg positive women were significantly younger compared to Italian ones (31.0 vs. 37.1 years). The same result was obtained for HCV-positive subjects (32.4 vs. 34.7 years). Unexpectedly, 32% of HBsAg positive Italian women were born after 1979, and thus should have been vaccinated.Conclusions: These results confirm the dramatic decline of HBV and HCV prevalence that recently occurred in Italy, and highlight the importance and cost-effectiveness of systematic HBV and HCV screening in childbearing age women.