In the United Kingdom, the National Screening Programme for identification of hepatitits B virus (HBV) infection in pregnant women uses HBV e antigen (HBeAg) and antibody to HBeAg (anti-HBe) as markers of infectivity to determine use of immunoglobulin for hepatitis B. Serum samples from 114 HBV-infected women were analyzed. Viral loads correlated with HBeAg/anti-HBe status and viral genotypes. Among 95 mothers whose serum contained anti-HBe, viral loads ranged between undetectable and 8.6 × 106 IU/mL (median 228 IU/mL). Ten (10.5%) of these mothers had plasma viral loads >104 IU/mL; 6 were infected with genotype E and one each with genotypes A, B, C, and D. All viruses had precore stop codon or basal core promoter mutations. Preponderance of genotypes other than A among antenatal mothers in the United Kingdom reflects increasing globalization and trends in immigration. HBeAg serostatus is no longer sufficiently accurate for inferring potential infectivity of pregnant HBV carriers.
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机译：在英国，用于鉴定孕妇乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）感染的国家筛查计划使用HBV e抗原（HBeAg）和抗HBeAg的抗体（抗HBe）作为感染性标志物，以确定免疫球蛋白在乙型肝炎中的用途分析了114名HBV感染妇女的血清样本。病毒载量与HBeAg /抗HBe状态和病毒基因型相关。在95位血清中含有抗HBe的母亲中，病毒载量介于8.6×10 6 IU / mL（中位数228 IU / mL）之间。这些母亲中有十（10.5％）的血浆病毒载量> 10 4 IU / mL； 6例感染了基因型E，每种感染了A，B，C和D型基因。所有病毒均具有前核心终止密码子或基础核心启动子突变。在英国，产前母亲中除A以外的其他基因型占主导地位，这反映了全球化的加剧和移民趋势。 HBeAg血清状态已不再足够准确，无法推断孕妇HBV携带者的潜在感染性。
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