Serological and virological profile of chronic HBV infected women at reproductive age in Greece

The overall prevalence of HBsAg is relatively low among women at reproductive age in Greece but is higher among specific ethnic populations (Asian, Albanian). The HBeAg(−)/antiHBe(+) serological status is a finding observed in the vast majority of HBsAg(+) women of our study population, and a significant percentage of them (approximately 44.5%) exhibit extremely low or even undetectable levels of viral replication at labor, suggesting possibly that only a proportion of HBsAg(+) women in Greece exhibit an extremely high risk of vertical transmission of the infection.