Seroprevalence of hepatitis b and c in morocco from 2017 to 2022: it's time to move on with who low prevalence countries?

Morocco is ranked, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) data, among the intermediate prevalence countries for viral hepatitis B (prevalence between 2 and 7%) and C (prevalence between 1 and 2.5%) [1, 2]. This classication is based on old epidemiological data. Several recent studies have reported lower prevalence rates of hepatitis B and C in the general Moroccan population. In this sense, and in order to better understand the evolution of the prevalence of hepatitis B and C in Morocco, we carried out a retrospective analysis of data from the Virology laboratory of Mohammed V Military Teaching Hospital (Rabat, Morocco) over a period 6 years (2017-2022). HBs antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis C antibody (HCVAb) were detected by Chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay on the Architect i2000SR analyzer according to the manufacturer's recommendations. The results are expressed in S/CO ratio. HBsAg-positive samples with an S/CO ratio superior to 1 were conrmed by the neutralization reaction. Demographic data was extracted from the laboratory information management system (LIMS). Duplicate results or results from non-Moroccan patients were excluded. All these analyses were done for hepatitis diagnosis, and therefore we did not seek ethical approval to use these samples for research purposes and was not required for this study in accordance with national guidelines.