Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection among pregnant women in a rural district in Egypt

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Medicine - Public Health, , language: English, abstract: Background: Egypt has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the world. Screening of HCV during pregnancy is not routinely done in Egypt as many other countries, although pregnancy is an important period where screening of HCV infection is important owing to low immunity, the possibility of vertical transmission and later on horizontal transmission to the baby or other household contacts.

Aim: to determine the seroprevalence of HCV antibodies (HCV-Ab) and risk factors associated with infection among pregnant women in Egypt.

Patients and Method: 360 pregnant women visiting the health care units for routine antenatal care were tested using 3rd generation ELISA test for detection of HCV-Ab. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was done for seropositive cases.

Results: 6.1% (22/360) of pregnant women were HCV seropositive; of them only (9/20; 45%) had viraemia. Risk factors were their age, the age of their and the presence of chronic liver disease in the husband.

Conclusion: The prevalence of HCV infection in pregnant women in Egypt appears to be lower than previously reported. The detected risk factors are old age of the pregnant women and their husbands and chronic liver disease in the husbands. None of the other known risk factors was found to be significantly associated with HCV infection in pregnant women.