孕妇可能服用乙肝药物：医生

StephenW

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.

StephenW

孕妇可能服用乙肝药物：医生

    作者：黄树立，谢丹尼斯/幕后记者和幕后作家

一位医生周二说，乙肝病毒载量高的孕妇可以服用抗病毒药物，以减少将这种疾病传播给婴儿的机会。

台湾大学医院云林妇女儿童医学中心主任徐明ku说，台湾过去的乙肝感染率很高，成年人中的携带率平均为15％至20％。科。

Hsu说，在1984年政府对所有新生儿强制使用B型肝炎疫苗后，年龄在35岁以下的人的携带率下降到1％。

Hsu表示，乙型肝炎主要通过血液传播，补充说，孕妇怀孕时检测为乙型肝炎e抗原（HBeAg）阳性的妇女所生的婴儿即使在接受了乙型肝炎免疫后也有10％的机会携带该病毒。他说，球蛋白和乙型肝炎疫苗。

他说，年轻时患乙型肝炎的人将成为慢性乙型肝炎的携带者，从而增加其肝硬化和肝癌的风险。

他说，孕妇乙型肝炎病毒载量越高，婴儿感染该疾病的可能性就越大。

但是，台湾大学的一项研究发现，如果一名妇女在怀孕第二十八周至分娩后四周之间服用抗病毒药物，感染率仅下降到1.54％。

他说，这促使美国国家卫生总署于2018年开始为乙肝病毒携带量高的孕妇怀孕27周提供抗病毒药物。

他补充说，该机构支付了全部药品费用，大约花费了新台币20,000元。

在台湾，用于治疗乙型肝炎的两种抗病毒药被美国食品和药物管理局列为妊娠期间吸毒的五级风险类别中第二安全的药物，这意味着它们对母亲的副作用很小NTUH云林分院院长黄瑞仁和婴儿说。

肝癌专家，分公司副院长陈健弘（Chen Chien-hung）和分公司内科的副主任李基裕（Lee Chi-yu）表示，针对12岁至12岁女性的妊娠试验途中14周包括对乙肝表面抗原和HBeAg进行血液检查。

他们说，如果两个结果都是阳性的，医生会建议该名妇女服用抗病毒药物，以降低其孩子患该病的风险。

他们补充说，如果HBeAg检测为阴性，但该妇女病毒载量高，建议她自掏腰包进行治疗。