The Hepatitis E virus outbreak in Namibia has revealed how severe the disease is in pregnant women and statistics show that the majority of deaths occur in this vulnerable population. Fifty-six people have died from Hepatitis E since the disease was declared an outbreak two years ago.
Thirty-six of the people who died from the disease were women and out of that number 24 were expectant mothers, according to official statistics from the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia.
The remaining 20 people who died were men. Studies have found that Hepatitis E infection is high among women in Africa.
There is no doubt that pregnant women are at a higher risk of dying from the disease because their immune systems are compromised.
Their chances of surviving once infected with the disease are low. According to a study titled Hepatitis E and pregnancy: current state which was published in March 2017 in the https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315467107_Hepatitis_E_and_pregnancy_current_state during pregnancy, the immune system is altered to protect the foetus from attacks by the mother’s immune system, however, these changes also affect the way the immune system responds to infectious diseases or germs.
A postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina Water Institute, Dr. Carmen Anthonj confirmed that the disease is severe in pregnant women and that is why they should be targeted with interventions to prevent them from contracting the disease.
Focus on Waterborne Diseases 