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Abstract
The aim of this prospective study was to determine the prevalence of HCV antibodies among pregnant women and their corresponding offspring in a tertiary medical centre in Southwestern Nigeria. Anti-HCV antibodies (anti-HCV antibodies) were analyzed in blood samples from mothers and cord samples from their corresponding offspring using the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method. The results obtained from the study were expressed in simple percentages. Out of the 272 consenting pregnant women screened for anti-HCV antibodies, 25 (9.2%) of them were positive. As none of the pregnant women had multiple births, screening the 272 cord sera from their offspring for the same antibodies revealed that 3 (1.10%) of them were also positive. Thus, the prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies in the pregnant women and their offspring were 9.2% and 1.1% respectively. If vertical transmission of HCV were to be based on the acquisition of anti-HCV antibodies alone, the prevalence of vertical transmission from HCV infected mothers to offspring in the study was 12.0%. Further studies on vertical transmission are suggested to include analysis for HCV-RNA quantification in pregnant mothers and their offspring as well as a long-term follow-up of neonates seropositive for HCV markers. Such studies are necessary to justify any recommendations to be made for the purpose of reducing HCV infection through vertical transmission.
Highlights
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects the liver and multiplies in the organ for many years; while some infected individuals live with the virus without major health problems as chronic carriers, a sizable proportion of the rest succumb to cirrhosis and cancer of the liver [1].The global prevalence of HCV infection is estimated to be approximately 3% (170 million) of the world’s population; the virus accounts for about 20% and 70% of cases of acute and chronic hepatitis respectively [2,3]
When the results from maternal samples and cord samples were paired, it was observed that the 3 positive cord samples were from among the offspring of the 25 pregnant mothers who were positive for anti-HCV antibodies
This prevalence is, within the range of 3.9% to 13% reported in pregnant women from the non-West African countries of Tanzania, Egypt, Congo, Malawi, and Cameroon [25,26,2829], These variations, noticed in different parts of subSaharan Africa, may be related to the peculiarities in the modes of transmission of HCV dictated by socio-cultural practices and environmental factors, as 90.8% of women in this study had scarification marks while none of them practiced intravenous drug usage
Summary
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects the liver and multiplies in the organ for many years; while some infected individuals live with the virus without major health problems as chronic carriers, a sizable proportion of the rest succumb to cirrhosis and cancer of the liver [1].The global prevalence of HCV infection is estimated to be approximately 3% (170 million) of the world’s population; the virus accounts for about 20% and 70% of cases of acute and chronic hepatitis respectively [2,3]. Several studies have demonstrated that sexual, household, occupational, and vertical transmissions from mother to offspring are of some significance in the transmission of HCV [6] The aim of this prospective study was to determine the prevalence of HCV antibodies among pregnant women and their corresponding offspring in a tertiary medical centre in Southwestern Nigeria. Further studies on vertical transmission are suggested to include analysis for HCV-RNA quantification in pregnant mothers and their offspring as well as a long-term follow-up of neonates seropositive for HCV markers. Such studies are necessary to justify any recommendations to be made for the purpose of reducing HCV infection through vertical transmission.
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