Frequency of HCV infection in children of HCV infected mothers

Abstract

Egypt has the largest epidemic of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in the world and the overall prevalence of positive cases for antibody to HCV was 14.7% from all population. To assess the frequency of hepatitis C infection in children of HCV infected mothers. The present study included 200 normal healthy children of HCV infected mothers aged 1.5-3 years of both sexes with different residence and socioeconomic level. All included children were submitted to full history taking and clinical examination, proper vaccination history that documented by registration, measurement of hemoglobin levels, ELISA test for detection of HCV antibody and PCR test for HCV RNA for HCV positive cases only. The HCV positive antibodies were reported in 5 children (2.5%); low viremia (by PCR) was reported in 3 out of 5 cases (60.0%) and moderate viremia was reported in 2 cases (40.0%). Comparison between HCV Ab-positive and negative cases revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between both groups; as regard any of studied variables. The results of the present study proved that the overall risk of HCV transmission among children of HCV infected mother was low and the rate of transmission represent only 2.5% of all studied cases.