Transmission of hepatitis C: Sexual, vertical or exclusively blood-borne?
✍ Scribed by Nancy Bach; Henry C. Bodenheimer Jr.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1992
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 387 KB
- Volume
- 16
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0270-9139
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Serum samples from eight pregnant women and their offspring were studied by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA to evaluate mother-to-child transmission of this virus. The mothers were all infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); none showed symptoms of HCV infection. Anti-HCV antibodies were tested for by recombinant immunoblot assay. HCV viral sequences were found in five of the mothers and four of eight children, three of them at birth. Viremia was persistent in one infant who had chronic transaminase elevation and persistently remained anti-HCVpositive. The other three babies had intermittent viremia; all were asymptomatic and lost anti-HCV antibodies duringfollow-up. This loss of antibodies was also observed in PCR-negative infants. Thus, these results demonstrate transmission of HCV from mother to child by women coinfected with HCV and HN. They indicate the usefulness of PCR for direct and early detection of HCV viremia in neonates.