VERTICAL TRANSMISSION OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS - AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC-STUDY ON 2,980 PREGNANT-WOMEN IN ITALY

The risk of mother-to-infant transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) v aries according to the population studied and the tests used. Aim of t he current study was to investigate HCV vertical transmission rate in children born to 30 HCV positive/HIV negative pregnant women in Italy. We investigated the potential vertical transmission of HCV by identif ying HCV antibody seropositive pregnant women, by analyzing HCV-RNA in the peripheral blood using PCR and by prospectively following their o ffspring until 24 months of age. During the third trimester, 2,980 con secutive pregnant women were examined for anti-HCV antibodies by a sec ond generation Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent. Assay (EIA2) and re-assaye d by a second generation Recombinant Immunoblot Assay (RIBA2). A total of 32 mothers (1.07%) were positive for EIA2 test; 30 out of 32 had a reactive confirmatory RIBA2 test for HCV. All anti-HCV positive mothe rs were negative for HIV. These 30 mothers and their 30 babies formed the study cohort. Of the 30 anti-HCV positive mothers, 10 were also po sitive for serum HCV-RNA by PCR. All the babies born to the 30 anti-HC V positive mothers were initially negative for HCV-RNA (cord blood spe cimens), but three babies became positive at three months of age and r emained positive thereafter. These babies had been born to 3 of the 10 mothers with viremia during the third trimester of pregnancy. These r esults suggest that HCV vertical transmission is possible in 10% of an ti-HCV positives and in about 33% of the HCV-RNA seropositive mothers.