[Horizontal transmission of hepatitis C virus to family members of infected polytransfused pediatric patients]. / Transmissione orizzontale del virus dell'epatite C tra i familiari di pazienti pediatrici politrasfusi infetti.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of the HCV antibodies in the relatives of polytransfused patients with different haemoglobinopathies. Our results have shown that 4.7% of relatives are aHCV positive. This incidence is much higher than that one reported in scientific publications with regard to non-haemoglobinopathis aHCV positive patients. Therefore a careful prevention and surveillance is needed in order to avoid the risk of infection in these subjects.