Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part C (2025)

This retrospective cross-sectional study analyzed laboratory records from the Virology Unit at the Maternity and Teaching Hospital in Karbala Governorate over a five-year period (2019-2023), encompassing 41,433 initial screenings among pregnant women. The primary objective was to assess the testing volume and apparent seroprevalence for Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg), Hepatitis C Virus Antibody (HCV Ab), and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Antibody (HIV Ab), and to situate these findings within a context of significant external stressors. The data revealed consistently high volumes of testing for these viruses throughout the study period, with a near-universal testing approach indicated by very strong positive correlations (r > 0.97, p < 0.001) between the total number of patients and the number of tests performed. A critical finding was a sharp 39.2% decline in total screenings in 2020, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the vulnerability of essential antenatal services to systemic shocks. Furthermore, the study provides a conceptual framework linking climate change through mechanisms such as extreme weather events, water scarcity, and population displacement to potential disruptions in healthcare infrastructure and subsequent impacts on the epidemiology of blood-borne viruses. While the data reflect a robust institutional commitment to routine screening per WHO guidelines, the pandemic-induced disruption serves as a potent analogue for how climate-related stressors could undermine maternal health programs. This analysis underscores the critical importance of building resilient healthcare systems capable of sustaining essential services, like the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), in the face of concurrent public health and environmental crises.