We are glad to respond to the concerns of Drs. Levy and Terrault about our articles on the mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in HBeAg-positive mothers. We agree with Drs. Levy and Terrault that antiviral therapy of HBV during pregnancy could effectively decrease the MTCT, and this strategy has been recommended by WHO for pregnant women with a high viral load. However, the long-term influences of the abrupt cessation of antiretroviral drugs in mothers and prenatal exposure to antiviral drugs in newborns are not completely understood and are still under investigation. And not all pregnant mothers would accept this regiment due to the medication availability and individual willingness. It makes sense to study the influential factors on MTCT among mothers with high-risk transmission but not taking antiviral drugs. Despite the relatively large number of subjects included in our cohort (N = 857), post hoc power computation shows that the test efficacy is far from adequate to detect the association between delivery mode or feeding type and HBV MTCT. Therefore, we summarized the relevant studies to reach a relatively reasonable conclusion in HBsAg- and HBeAg-positive pregnant mothers not taking antiviral drugs. We provide an alternative option for HBsAg- and HBeAg-positive pregnant mothers who cannot access or defer to antiviral therapy during pregnancy to reduce the risk of HBV transmission to their offspring.
Keywords: delivery mode; feeding mode; hepatitis B virus; mother-to-infant transmission.
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.