Hepatitis C virus [HCV] in pregnancy: prevalence and risk factors for infection

Maternal and child health issues relating to hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection have recently assumed greater importance than ever before. The aim of this work was to find out the magnitude of the problem of HCV seroprevalence among pregnant women and the relations between HCV infection and the risk factors [age, gravidity, blood transfusion, surgical operations, hospital admission, multiple injections and past history suggestive of hepatitis]. This study was carried out on 1832 pregnant women. Serum samples were subjected to HCV antibodies and positive samples were subjected to liver function tests and HCV RT- PCR. The results were discussed in details