Comprehensive Assessment of Hepatitis B Virus Infection: Seroprevalence, Gut Microbiota Interactions, and Pregnancy Outcomes
Seval B Wedemeyer1* and Yan Liu2
1Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV), Department of Viral Transformation, 20251 Hamburg, Germany
2State Key Laboratory of Virology and Biosafety and Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Allergy and Immunology, TaiKang Medical School (School of Basic Medical Sciences), Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Citation: Wedemeyer SB, Liu Y. Comprehensive Assessment of Hepatitis B Virus Infection: Seroprevalence, Gut Microbiota Interactions, and Pregnancy Outcomes. J Immunol Res Infect Dis. (2025);5(1): 1-3
Abstract
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) continues to be a silent yet significant global health concern, especially in low‑resource settings. In Libreville, Gabon, a review of screening records revealed that nearly 60 % of adults had been exposed to HBV, and about 22 % were actively infected—yet only about 15 % had ever been vaccinated. Among pregnant women, susceptibility to HBV was worryingly high, underscoring risks of vertical transmission. At the same time, in Guangzhou, China, our gut microbiome study showed that people with occult HBV infection had distinct microbial features—especially increased Subdoligranulum and decreased Faecalibacterium—which might reflect immune activation that keeps the virus suppressed.
Meanwhile, in southern Vietnam, over half of 375 pregnant women with chronic HBV received tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) during pregnancy, and their HBsAg levels correlated well with HBV DNA. These findings highlight the importance of combining epidemiological surveillance, microbiome insights, and accessible antiviral therapy to curtail HBV transmission and improve outcomes