الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The transmission of HBV infection from mothers to their has been recognized as an important mechanism for the intenance and dissemination of HB in many areas. (95,96)Through reening and the gradual elimination of HBsAg positive carriers ram panels of blood donOrs, once an important source of hepa itis, vertical transmission may rapidly become the principal an 0 f vir a 1 s p rea des pe cia 11 y in co u n t r i e s wit h alar g e lumber of carriers. (97,98) Perinatally infected infants have unless specific pro I ylactic measures are taken, a 90chance of becoming chronic rriers from whom the infection may be disseminated by several ans,(96,145) It is likely that the progression to hepatoma directly related to the acquisition of this infection rly in life and thus maintaining a population susceptible . (150 151) hepatocellular carClnoma. ’ It is estimated that about one in each four infants a become chronic carriers following perinatal infection, 11 develop cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma later in , ’fe,(l54,155) 11 The public health implications of neonatal HBV infection in any community will be directly related to the local prevalence of maternal infection. (109) Virtually no data have been ,ublished concerning the maternofetal transmission of HBV among the Egyptian population. Therefore, the present work was conducted in order to study the carrier rate among pre gnant women in Alexandria and to investigate the rate of the transmission of the infection to their infants together with the d if fer e n t fa c tor s a f fee tin g it. A total of 735 pregnant women at delivery and their ~abies was chosen from El-Shatby University Maternity Hospital. 1:11 ~era were collected from all pregnant females at delivery and from the umbilical cord of their babies. In addition, a ~uestionnaire sheet was completed for each mother. The screen ing of mothers sera was performed to assess their HBsAg status using ELISA technique. Those found to be positive, further follow up sera were collected from them and their babies after three months of age. These were investigated together with corresponding cord samples for the presence of HBsAg, HBeAg or anti-e. I:jI III The assessment of perinatal transmission was conducted by comparing the titer of anti-HBc in the cord sera with that of its follow up. The results obtained in this work could be summarized as follows: I)The carrier rate among pregnant women was 5.0 . Also the percentages of ”e”Ag and anti-e among them were 16.1 and 45.2 respectively. 2)As regards districts, the highest carrier rate was in Ea s t (46. 0 ) followed b y the Mid dIe ) . 3)Pregnant women of the low and middle social class had greater opportuni ty of carriage than high social class (5.7 - 5.5)