- 现金
- 62111 元
- 精华
- 26
- 帖子
- 30437
- 注册时间
- 2009-10-5
- 最后登录
- 2022-12-28
|
Pregnant women may take drugs for hepatitis B: doctor
By Huang Shu-li and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Pregnant women with a high viral load of hepatitis B can take anti-viral drugs to reduce the chances of transmitting the disease to their babies, a doctor said on Tuesday.
Taiwan used to have high infection rates of hepatitis B, with the carrier rate among adults averaging 15 to 20 percent, said Hsu Ming-kuang (徐明洸), head of the medical center for women and children at National Taiwan University Hospital’s (NTUH) Yunlin Branch.
After the government made hepatitis B vaccines mandatory for all newborns in 1984, the carrier rate among people younger than 35 dropped to 1 percent, Hsu said.
Hepatitis B is mainly transmitted via blood, Hsu said, adding that babies born to women who tested positive for hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) when they were pregnant have a 10 percent chance of carrying the virus, even after they receive hepatitis B immune globulin and hepatitis B vaccines, he said.
People who develop hepatitis B at a young age would become a chronic hepatitis B carrier, increasing their risks of cirrhosis and liver cancer, he said.
The higher the viral load of hepatitis B in a pregnant woman, the more likely their babies would be borne with the disease, he said.
However, a National Taiwan University study found that the infection rate dropped to only 1.54 percent if a woman took anti-viral medications between the 28th week of her pregnancy and four weeks after her delivery.
This prompted the National Health Administration in 2018 to start providing anti-viral medications to women with a high viral load of hepatitis B when they are 27 weeks pregnant, he said.
The agency covers full expenses for the medications, which cost about NT$20,000, he added.
The two anti-viral drugs used to treat hepatitis B in Taiwan are classified as the second-safest by the US Food and Drug Administration in its five-level risk categories for drug use during pregnancy, which means they would have few side effects in mothers and babies, NTUH Yunlin Branch superintendent Huang Jui-jen (黃瑞仁) said.
Chen Chien-hung (陳健弘), a liver cancer expert and vice superintendent at the branch, and Lee Chi-yu (李基裕), vice director of the branch’s Department of Internal Medicine, said that the pregnancy test for women who are 12 to 14 weeks on the way includes blood tests for hepatitis B surface antigen and HBeAg.
If both results are positive, doctors would advise the woman to take anti-viral drugs to lower the risk of their child being born with the disease, they said.
If the test for HBeAg is negative, but the woman has a high viral load, it is advised that she pays out of the pocket for the treatment, they added.
|
|