PREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS-C INFECTION IN PREGNANT-WOMEN IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) sero positivity and known risk factors for HCV infection in a group of preg nant women. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Lyell McEwin Heal th Service, Elizabeth, South Australia (a general public hospital with an annual average of about 2000 deliveries). Subjects: 1537 consecuti ve women who delivered at the Lyell McEwin Health Service from Februar y 1995 to December 1995. Outcome measures: Presence of HCV antibodies; and associations between HCV-antibody status and known risk factors. Results: 17 women (1.1%) were HCV-seropositive. Risk factors significa ntly more prevalent among HCV-seropositive patients were: a history of injecting drug use, a past or present sexual partner who had injected drugs, having a tattoo and having been incarcerated. The proportions who had received a blood transfusion, had acquired a sexually transmit ted disease or were positive for hepatitis B virus surface antigen wer e not significantly different between seropositive and seronegative wo men. Multivariate analysis showed that only injecting drug use remaine d a strong independent predictor of HCV-seropositivity (odds ratio [OR ], 50.1; P < 0.001), while having a tattoo approached significance (OR , 3.5; P = 0.07). Conclusion: As only 1.1% of this sample of women wer e HCV-seropositive, screening of all pregnant women does not seem warr anted. Testing on the basis of a history of risk factors, such as inje cting drug use and having a tattoo, would detect undiagnosed HCV infec tions more efficiently.