Rohtak PGIMS doctor awarded for Hepatitis B treatment

ROHTAK: Dr. Vani Malhotra, professor, obstetrics & gynecology, PGIMS, Rohtak has bagged Amarinder Nath Dan first prize in Mother child care in 65th national conference of Federation of Obstetrics & Gynecology (FOGSI), held recently in Kolkata.
The spokesperson of the premier institute said that her presentation was on successful strategies for prevention of vertical transmission in hepatitis B pregnant patients.
Dr. Vani Malhotra said that this is ongoing research being done for the last five years and till now 460 Hepatitis B positive pregnant patients have been enrolled.
Out of them 120 patients with high viral load and/or HbsAg positivity were started on antiviral treatment from 28 weeks of pregnancy.
Every newborn was administered 0.5 ml hepatitis B immunoglobulin along with zero dose hepatitis B vaccination within 12 hours of birth, followed by a complete course of hepatitis B vaccination.
As per guidelines, vertical transmission is confirmed if a child of hepatitis B positive mother, at one year of age is detected to be HbsAg or HBV DNA positive.
Till date 150 newborn have attained one year of age, and all of them have been found to be HbsAg negative, meaning by zero percent vertical transmission. It is one of the rare research worldwide done till date, that vertical transmission of hepatitis B can be completely prevented.
Out of these 150, 35 pregnant mothers were on antiviral treatment. All newborn were breastfed and 20% were delivered through caesarean section, the rate which is comparable to HbsAg negative mothers.
There were no detrimental effects of hepatitis B virus or antiviral treatment on both pregnant females as well as newborn. Majority of these pregnant patients belonged to rural areas, were in 20-30 yrs of age group and predominantly delivered in government hospitals.
The initial results of this research are very encouraging and stress the need of taking the above steps in all hepatitis B pregnant patients for preventing vertical transmission, so as to decrease the total burden of this deadly disease.
Moreover, this research reaffirms about continuing with the practice of breast feeding of the newborn and no indication of performing elective caesarean section solely for decreasing vertical transmission of Hepatitis B. Moreover, it proves that antiviral treatment is safe for both mother and newborn, Dr. Vani said.
Photo: Dr. Vani Malhotra, professor obstetrics & gynecology, PGIMS, Rohtak was felicitated by University of health sciences, Rohtak vice-chancellor Dr. Anita Saxena.