Brief report: Acute viral hepatitis and poor maternal and perinatal outcomes in pregnant Sudanese women

Sixteen pregnant women presented at the three main hospitals in Khartoum province, Sudan during the period of March-September 2007 with features of acute viral hepatitis. Their mean (SD) gestational age was 28.0(6.7) weeks. The etiology of acute viral hepatitis was hepatitis B virus in five women (31.3%), hepatitis C virus in one woman (6.3%), hepatitis E virus in eight women (50%), and hepatitis non-A-to-E virus in two women (12.5%). There were four (25%) maternal deaths and three (18.7%) intrauterine fetal deaths. Three of these maternal deaths were due to hepatitis E virus and the fourth was due to hepatitis B virus.