Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jul 27, 2024; 16(7): 995-1008
Published online Jul 27, 2024. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v16.i7.995
Chronic hepatitis B virus infection in Eastern Ethiopia: Clinical characteristics and determinants of cirrhosis
Nejib Y Ismael, Semir A Usmael, Nega B Belay, Hailemichael Desalegn Mekonen, Asgeir Johannessen, Stian MS Orlien
Nejib Y Ismael, Semir A Usmael, Department of Internal Medicine, Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Harar 252, Ethiopia
Nega B Belay, Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa 1000, Ethiopia
Nega B Belay, Asgeir Johannessen, Stian MS Orlien, Regional Centre for Imported and Tropical Diseases, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo 0450, Ullevål, Norway
Hailemichael Desalegn Mekonen, Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit, Saint Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa 1000, Ethiopia
Hailemichael Desalegn Mekonen, Asgeir Johannessen, Stian MS Orlien, Department of Infectious Disease, Vestfold Hospital Trust, Tønsberg 3103, Norway
Asgeir Johannessen, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Oslo University, Oslo 0318, Norway
Stian MS Orlien, Department of Pediatrics, Oslo University, Oslo 0450, Ullevål, Norway
Co-first authors: Nejib Y Ismael and Semir A Usmael.
Author contributions: Belay NB, Mekonen HD, Johannessen A, and Orlien SMS conceptualized and designed the research study; Ismael NY and Usmael SA participated in the data acquisition, analysis and interpretation of the data; Usmael SA drafted the initial manuscript; All of the authors revised the article critically for important intellectual content and gave approval for final version of the article. Ismael NY and Usmael SA efforts were equal in this work and as such merit co-first authorship.
Supported by the Norwegian Research Council, 220622/H10.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the National Research Ethics Review Committee (Ref. No. 3.10/829/07) in Ethiopia and by the Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics (Ref. No. 2014/1146) in Norway, as well as the pertinent institutional ethical review boards.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided written informed consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Semir A Usmael, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Jinella Street, Harar 252, Ethiopia. semirabdi61@gmail.com
Received: February 23, 2024
Revised: June 14, 2024
Accepted: July 5, 2024
Published online: July 27, 2024
Processing time: 153 Days and 16 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: In this study, we investigated the characteristics and efficacy of antiviral treatment in 193 patients who were human immunodeficiency virus-negative and participated in a pilot chronic hepatitis B treatment program in Eastern Ethiopia. Notably, one-third of the patients had cirrhosis at enrollment, reflecting poor access to hepatitis B virus services in the study area. Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate treatment was highly effective in achieving viral suppression and improving the levels of liver fibrosis markers. However, the initial mortality rate was high owing to the high proportion of patients with decompensated cirrhosis. This finding highlights the importance of scaling up national hepatitis B virus prevention and control programs.