Management of acute infection and active inflammation in pregnancy

The implementation of worldwide vaccination programme has significantly dropped the cases of acute Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. However, women at childbearing age and pregnant ladies living in high prevalence areas remain at risk of getting the infection and passing the infections to their children through mother-to-child transmission. The article summarised the management of acute infection and active inflammation in pregnancy from a hepatologist's perspective. All infants born to HBsAg-positive mothers should receive vaccination no later than 12 hours after birth. Moreover, the use of antiviral therapy has been proved effective to reduce mother-to-child transmission. (Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol. 2020 Apr 7;S1521-6934(20)30055-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2020.03.014. Online ahead of print.)

Anyone interested in future collaboration in this field of research is welcome to contact our key investigator Prof Grace WONG in the Department of Medicine & Therapeutics, CUHK. Prof Wong’s research focuses on Non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and chronic viral hepatitis, contrast-enhanced ultrasonography of liver.