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A prospective study of vertical transmission of hepatitis C virus
1De-Gui Sun, Cai-Yun Liu, Shu-Cong Wang, Yu-Qi Yang, Guan County Sanitary and Antiepidemic Station, Guan County 065500, Hebei Province, China.
Aim:
To prospectively study the mechanism of mother to infant transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Methods:
Using a nested PCR for detection of HCV RNA and the second generation ELISA for detection of anti-HCV, 13 pregnant women who suffered from post transfusion hepatitis C (PT-HCV) and their 15 babies were studied to evaluate mother to infant transmission of HCV.
Results:
The total infection rate of HCV was 86.7% in the babies, including one case of clinical HCV (7.7%), three subclinical cases of HCV (23.1%), and nine inapparent cases of HCV (69.2%). The positive rates of anti-HCV and HCV RNA declined with the age of the babies, to 7.7% for anti-HCV and 15.4% for HCV RNA at the age of three years.
Conclusion:
Babies born to mothers infected with HCV were vertically infected with HCV at a high rate, but the consequences were not serious. Four fetuses born, born through induced labor to mothers positive for anti-HCV and HCV, were all infected by HCV, suggesting that the mother to infant transmission of HCV mainly occurred in the uterus.
