Hepatitis B is an infection of the liver that can cause scarring of the organ, cancer, and liver failure. Peripartum antiviral prophylaxis is used to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of the hepatitis B virus (HBV). This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of antiviral prophylaxis during pregnancy to prevent MTCT HBV.
This systematic review and meta-analysis included a total of 7,463 randomized controlled trials and non-randomized studies from the datasets of CENTRAL, CNKI, Wanfang, Embase, Scopus, and PubMed. The eligible trials included the study of peripartum antiviral prophylaxis versus placebo or no prophylaxis and the ones which enrolled pregnant women. The antivirals put into consideration were tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, lamivudine, and telbivudine. The primary outcome of the study was MTCT HBV based on infant HBsAg positivity.
Out of 7,643 randomized trials and non-randomized studies, 595 text reviews, and 129 studies matched the criteria. The pooled odds ratios (OR) for the assessed antivirals were 0.10 for tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, 0.14 for telbivudine, and 0.16 for lamivudine. In non-randomized studies, the ORs for the antivirals were 0.1, 0.17, and 0.09, respectively.
The result concluded that peripartum antiviral prophylaxis was highly effective in preventing MTCT HBV in pregnant mothers.
Ref: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30586-7/fulltext
