Epidemiology and prevalence of seropositivity for hepatitis C virus in pregnant women in Granada

OBJECTIVES: to study personal and familial antecedents of risk and prevalen ce of infection by HCV in pregnant women in the south area of Granada. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We included in the study 3003 pregnant women of the s outh area of Granada during the period from January 1993 to December 1995. Anti-HCV was detected in the third trimester of pregnancy by second and thi rd generation ELISA, and positive results were confirmed by RIBA 3. We also determined HCV-RNA and genotype. Finally, we analyzed ALT levels in 1171 ( 39%) pregnant women. We carried out an epidemiological survey of all pregna nt women, which included the following personal antecedents: transfusion, i ntravenous drug use, liver diseases, risk profession and sexualy transmitte d diseases. We studied the same antecedents in the parents, husbands and ot her relatives. RESULTS: prevalence of anti-HCV was 0.63% (19 cases) with ELISA and 0.53% w ith RIBA. HCV-RNA was positive in 14 (74%) genotype Ib (57%) being the most frequent. ALT was increased in 52 (4.4%) pregnant women, 7 (13.5% of whom were anti-HCV positive, versus 12 women (1%) in the normal ALT group (p < 0 .001), In the epidemiological study we observed statistically significant d ifferences in: a) housing characteristics [2125 (71%) anti-HCV negative pre gnant women living in occupant-owned housing versus 7 (36%) in anti-HCV-pos itive group, p < 0.001]; b) personal antecedents of transfusion, chronic or acute hepatitis, or intravenous drug use (p < 0.001) (these factors were c onfirmed in the multivariable analysis), and c) familial antecedents of the husband (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: in this study we demonstrated that 0.53% of the pregnant women were infected by HCV; most of them were HCV-RNA positive and was genotype Ib was the most frequent. The risk factors most frequently associated with infection were antecedents of transfusion, intravenous drug use and acute o r chronic hepatitis.