Prevalence of HCV infection in pregnant women and vertical transmission

Kang, Moon Jung; Kim, Hee Jin; Park, Ki Jung; Kang, Kyeng Hwa; Ahn, Hyun Sook

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
The HCV seroprevalence rate and the vertical transmission rate in Korean pregnancy women have not been determined until now. The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of anti- HCV in pregnant women and vertical transmission rate to assess the role of antenatal screening of HCV and the necessity of following babies from anti-HCV positive mothers.
METHODS
We reviewed the medical records of 21,639 patients who delivered at Ilsin Christian hospital from January 2000 to October 2003. The HbsAg, HbsAb, anti-HCV, HIV test were performed in their 1st trimester of pregnancy and the HCV RNA test was performed by RT-PCR in samples positive for anti-HCV. 38 babies born to anti-HCV positive mothers were tested for anti-HCV and those who were positive anti-HCV were also tested for HCV RNA by PCR.
RESULTS
The positive rate of anti-HCV in pregnant women was 0.42% (90/21,639) and that of HCV RNA was 57% (51/90). The positive rate of anti-HCV was 26.3% (10/38) and the result of HCV RNA test was all negative in babies whose mothes were positive for anti-HCV.
CONCLUSION
The prevalence of anti-HCV in pregnant women who delivered at our hospital seems to be higher than that in the Korean young adult man and it is similar with the whole world prevalence rate. The prevalence of anti-HCV of babies born to HCV PCR positive mothers was higher than that born to HCV PCR negative mothers. None of anti-HCV positive babies was HCV RNA positive. With this, we conclude that the vertical transmission as the transmission route of HCV infection is negligible but routine screening for HCV is acceptable to pregnant women.