Detection of Hepatitis C virus and the risk of transmission among pregnant and nursing mothers from rural and urban communities in Kogi State, Nigeria.

This study found an overall rate of 4.6% for HCV and 2.2% (4/176) viremia indicating both active and passive infections. HCV rate was higher among the civil servants (2.3%; CI = -0.25-2.91; P= 0.241) and peaked among the age group 31-35 years (2.3%; CI = 0.183-2.182; P= 0.293). Various risk factors identified included, relatively high HCV rates during first trimester (1.7%; CI = -2.2-3.61; P= .047), ear/nose piercing (4.6%; CI = -46.83-54.82; P= 0.157), seropositivity among the married (3.9%; CI = -3.36-7.3567; P= 0.238) and urban dwellers (2.8%; CI = -8.71-16.71; P= 0.157). None of the bio-socio-demographic variables except the stage of pregnancy as arisk factor (P= 0.041) evaluated significantly influenced either HCV rate or viremia. This study showed arelatively high rate of HCV among the participants and also revealed that risk factors-based testing is not effective in ELISA testing alone for pregnant and nursing mothers in the community. Therefore, all HCV seropositive pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers including their babies should be tested using the PCR technique to determine vertical transmission and RNA reevaluated after delivery to assess spontaneous clearance. PMID: 31959043 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Journal of Immunoassay and Immunochemistry - Category: Biochemistry Tags: J Immunoassay Immunochem Source Type: research