Prevalence of and risk factors for hepatitis C in rural pregnant Egyptian women

Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were studied in 2587 pregnant women from three rural Egyptian villages in the Nile Delta being admitted to a prospective cohort study of maternal-infant transmission; 408 (15.8%) had antibodies to HCV (anti-HCV) and 279 (10.8%) also h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 2006-02, Vol.100 (2), p.102-107
Main Authors: Stoszek, Sonia K., Abdel-Hamid, Mohamed, Narooz, Shaker, Daly, Mai El, Saleh, Doa’a A., Mikhail, Nabiel, Kassem, Enas, Hawash, Yousry, Kafrawy, Sherif El, Said, Ahmed, Batanony, Manal El, Shebl, Fatma M., Sayed, Mohamed, Sharaf, Soraya, Fix, Alan D., Strickland, G. Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Cohort Studies
Egypt
Egypt - epidemiology
Female
HCV
Hepatitis C - epidemiology
Hepatitis C - transmission
Hepatitis C Antibodies - blood
Hepatitis C virus
Human viral diseases
Humans
Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical
Infectious diseases
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications, Infectious - epidemiology
Pregnancy Complications, Infectious - virology
Prevalence
Risk Factors
Rural Health
Seroepidemiologic Studies
Transmission
Viral diseases
Viral hepatitis
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Summary:Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were studied in 2587 pregnant women from three rural Egyptian villages in the Nile Delta being admitted to a prospective cohort study of maternal-infant transmission; 408 (15.8%) had antibodies to HCV (anti-HCV) and 279 (10.8%) also had HCV-RNA. Fewer than 1% gave a history of jaundice or liver disease. Risk factors for anti-HCV included increasing age, low socioeconomic status and a history of blood transfusion or injection therapy for schistosomiasis. Sub-analyses after stratification of subjects by village revealed risks associated with specific venues for medical care, having a previous delivery attended by a traditional birth assistant (TBA), receiving medical care in a temporary clinic located in a mosque, overnight admission to a private doctor's clinic, and circumcision by a TBA or a ‘health barber’. Our results suggest HCV causes very little detected illness in young adult Egyptian women and some sources of HCV transmission in rural Egypt in the past were associated with the provision of medical care and varied by location. Prevention should be focused on providing appropriate resources and health education should be given to formal and informal healthcare providers and should be sufficiently broad to adjust for local variations in exposures.
ISSN:0035-9203
1878-3503
DOI:10.1016/j.trstmh.2005.05.021