Hepatitis B: How a new initiative is saving newborns from infection
A Kenyan mother shares her success story of preventing mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B through timely medical intervention and vaccination. The report highlights the effectiveness of the birth-dose vaccine and ongoing monitoring in protecting newborns from the virus.
Why it matters
It demonstrates the life-saving impact of standardized prenatal screening and neonatal immunization protocols in public health.
Every day during her pregnancy, Salima Sitet asked medics the same question: "Will my baby be born free of hepatitis B?"
It was in early 2025, just months after her elder brother died from hepatitis B virus complications.
At the time, Sitet was five months pregnant and attending her first antenatal clinic (ANC) visit.
It is during this ANC visit that she was tested for hepatitis B and told she was positive.
"I went into shock after testing positive," recalls the 28-year-old mother of three from Maji Moto, in Baringo.
"I was mourning my brother, only to test positive for the disease that had killed him. I didn't know how to fight for my life, and that of my unborn child. I was scared," she said.
After counselling, hepatitis B treatment was initiated to suppress the virus, reducing the risk of transmitting it to her unborn child.
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