Epidemiology screening and genotyping analysis for Hepatitis B virus in Southwestern region of Saudi Arabia

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a global human pathogen that can cause life-threatening liver disease including persistent hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and hepatocellular cancer. The aim of this present study was to investigate the infection of HBV epidemiology and also examine the HBsAg genotype distribution in the southwestern region of Jizan city in the Saudi Arabia. Since 2015-2018, epidemiological study has been conducted within the city premises of Jazan region. HBsAg genotyping with the molecular biology grade techniques was performed in 50 subjects. In this study, 1888 subjects in the Jazan city of the Southwestern region were diagnosed as positive for HBV. The mean age of the participants was found to be 44.5 +/- 16.9 years. Over 68% of males and 31% of females participated in this epidemiological study. Approximately, 88% of Saudi nationalities were recruited with 12% involving non-Saudi subjects Genotyping analysis confirmed that 90% of subjects confirmed genotype-D and 10% confirmed genotypes A, H and E. Anova analysis could find no significant association between the genotype analysis and the clinical data (p > 0.05). The prevalence of HBV in the Jazan region was found to be high based on the clinical data from epidemiological studies conducted in the Southwestern region. Since 2015-2018, a total of 1888 samples have been found to be positive at Jazan premises. The HBsAg genotyping studies confirm in this study 90% of the genotyping-D was documented. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences.

Automated summary

The study investigated HBV infection and HBsAg genotype distribution in southwestern Jizan city, Saudi Arabia, finding a high prevalence of HBV in the region. Most participants were of Saudi nationality and the majority had genotype-D.