Doctor LE MANH HUNG, Deputy Director of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, replied: Transmission of hepatitis B virus from mother to child is an important route of transmission. About 95% of children born to mothers infected with hepatitis B virus will be infected by their mothers if no preventive measures are applied. Children born with hepatitis B virus from their mothers can carry the virus for life, and the disease will flare up during adulthood. The world and Vietnam have updated and launched a program to prevent transmission of hepatitis B virus from mother to child, which has achieved high results.
A person infected with hepatitis B virus has almost no warning symptoms, the disease can only be detected by blood test. Vietnam is a country with a high rate of hepatitis B virus infection. Therefore, we recommend that all people should be screened for the disease to have effective preventive measures, especially women of childbearing age.
If you are infected with hepatitis B virus, you should go to a liver specialist facility to consider further monitoring or treatment. Here, you will be advised by a doctor on measures to prevent hepatitis B virus infection to your child with the aim of ensuring the safety of the mother and avoiding infection to the child.
Regarding treatment, if the pregnant woman is diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B, the doctor will treat her with Tenofovir 1 tablet/day. This is the only drug to treat hepatitis B for pregnant women, it also has a preventive effect on the baby. The treatment time in this case is long-term, in some cases it requires lifelong treatment.
If the pregnant woman is infected with hepatitis B virus but has not yet developed hepatitis, the doctor will monitor, perform a quantitative hepatitis B test and prescribe an appropriate treatment plan with Tenofovir.
Children born to mothers infected with hepatitis B virus must be vaccinated within 24 hours of birth with two types of drugs: hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) and hepatitis B vaccine. After that, the child will be fully vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccines according to the regulations of the expanded immunization program. When the child is over 12 months old, parents should take the child to the hospital to have HBsAg and anti-HBs tests to assess the child's hepatitis B infection status.
If the above preventive measures are applied, the possibility of protecting the child from being infected with hepatitis B from the mother is very high.
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