Review
Hepatitis C in pregnancy
N Had
i
Department of Child
Health, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RJ,
United Kingdom
Correspondence to: Dr Had
i
nedim.hadzic@kcl.ac.uk
Accepted 4 January
2001
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
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Introduction |
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At the end of the second millennium, chronic hepatitis C virus
(HCV) infection is recognised as a major public health problem. The
global prevalence of chronic HCV infection is estimated to be
approaching 3% (over 170 million HCV infected people) with considerable geographical variation, ranging from 0.01-0.1% in the
United Kingdom and Scandinavia to 17-26% in Egypt.1 At present, the infection rate peaks among adults aged 30-49 and declines
sharply in those older than 50 years, suggesting acquisition of HCV
within the past 10-30 years.1 In the United States, the
estimated anti-HCV prevalence in 6-11 year old children is 0.2%, and
among adolescents aged 12-19 it is 0.4%.2 3 HCV induced
end stage chronic liver disease is a leading indication for
transplantation in the adult population of the United
States.1 2 Anti-HCV screening of blood products
introduced during the early 1990s has minimised this mode of HCV
acquisition, leaving vertical transmission from infected mothers
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Hutchinson, S J, Goldberg, D J, King, M, Cameron, S O, Shaw, L E, Brown, A, MacKenzie, J, Wilson, K, MacDonald, L
(2004). Hepatitis C virus among childbearing women in Scotland: prevalence, deprivation, and diagnosis. Gut
53: 593-598
[Abstract] [Full Text]
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