Occult Hepatitis B Virus Infection Prevalence Among Different Populations of Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Various frequency rates of occult hepatitis B virus infection (OBI) are reported from different parts of Iran. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to characterize the OBI epidemiology in Iran and estimate the pooled prevalence among different populations.

Nine international and Persian electronic databases, as well as some conference proceedings, were searched. Original cross-sectional studies up to December 2018 were included if they investigated the prevalence of OBI by the detection of serum hepatitis B virus surface antigen and hepatitis B virus nucleic acid in at least 30 samples selected with any sampling methods. Comprehensive meta-analysis software was used to analyze the data, and Cochran’s Q-test and I-square statistics were applied to assess the heterogeneity. Meta-regression analysis was performed to assess the impact of the year of study on the OBI frequency. A P value < 0.05 was considered as the level of significance.

Of 412 citations found in electronic sources and 35 relevant citations added by searching the gray literature, 83 non-duplicated non-overlapping studies were evaluated. A total of 55 documents comprising 14,485 individuals from 16 provinces met the inclusion criteria and were used in the analysis. The prevalence of OBI considerably varied in different parts of the country with the highest prevalence (63.1%) reported among the HIV-positive population in Fars province. The rates of the OBI prevalence were estimated at 0.06% (95% CI: 0.02 - 0.16%) among blood donors (BDs) regardless of their anti-HBc status, 7.90% (95% CI: 4.33 - 13.99%) among anti-HBc positive BDs, 2.49% (95% CI: 1.2 - 4.81%) among hemodialysis (HD) patients, 4.44% (95% CI: 1.56 - 12.02%) among HIV-positive patients, and 7.76% (95% CI: 4.57 - 12.86%) among HCV-positive patients. No significant trends were observed in OBI prevalence rates among different groups over time (P > 0.05).

This review revealed high rates of OBI prevalence among high-risk populations in Iran. It is strongly suggested that occult hepatitis B be investigated among populations with a high chance of its occurrence in our country.