Abstract
Background: It is estimated that 150–200 million people, or 3% of the world's population, are living with chronic hepatitis C. Objective: to identify the prevalence of HCV among pregnant women and infants of infected women and detect risk factors and the rate of vertical transmission.Methods: 3000 births of pregnant women aged between 18 to 43 years were randomized and prospectively screened using HCV antibody and HCV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis to identify the risk of pregnancy on HCV and HCV on pregnancy and the prevalence of HCV among pregnant women and infants of infected women to identify the rate of vertical transmission.Results: A total of 3000 pregnant women attending perinatal care were screened. Forty four (1. 46%) showed HCV-positive antibodies, vertical transmission (13.6%) and six (0.2%) of newborns tested positive within the first 24 hours post-delivery. Three-fourth (33/44) of the HCV positive pregnant women had a history of surgical intervention. However, 50% (22/44) had history of Cesarean section and blood transfusion (11/44).Conclusion: The prevalence of HCV in pregnant women in Egypt is lower than previously reported. Risk factors for transmission suggest that there is a correlation between the age and parity of the studied women and the incidence of hepatitis C infection. Hepatitis C virus infection was found more among those women with past history of previous surgery or blood transfusion. Further studies are needed to explore this issue. Incidence of vertical transmission of HCV in Egypt is not more different than in other countries and it plays no role in the high endemicity in Egyp

Keywords
Hepatitis C virus, vertical transmission, pregnant women.

Cite this paper
Mahmoud Edessy, Abd El Aziz G. Al Darwish, Hosam H. El Katatny, Manal G. Abd El Aty, Ahmed Abd El Hamed, Osama Abd El Azeem, Hepatitis C Virus Infection during Pregnancy in Upper Egypt , SCIREA Journal of Clinical Medicine. Volume 1, Issue 1, October 2016 | PP. 97-109.

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