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Importance of sexual transmission of hepatitis C virus in seropositive pregnant women: A case‐control study
Author(s) -
Salleras Lluis,
Bruguera Miguel,
Vidal Josep,
Plans Pere,
Domínguez Angela,
Salleras Montserrat,
Navas Encarna,
Galí Neus
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199706)52:2<164::aid-jmv8>3.0.co;2-1
Subject(s) - medicine , transmission (telecommunications) , hepatitis c virus , sexual transmission , hepatitis c , seroprevalence , needle sharing , virology , immunology , abortion , condom , sexual partner , virus , obstetrics , pregnancy , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , antibody , serology , biology , syphilis , microbicide , gonorrhea , electrical engineering , genetics , engineering
The mode of hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission in patients who deny parenteral exposure is still not understood. Seroprevalence studies of anti‐HCV in sexually promiscuous populations and in spouses of infected patients have given contradictory results. We investigated the role of sexual transmission of HCV in a case‐control study of risk factors for infection in a series of 43 anti‐HCV positive pregnant women and 172 matched controls (4 for each case). In the univariate analysis, the following factors were associated significantly with anti‐HCV seropositivity: low social class, unmarried, history of abortion, wounds which were sutured, tattooes, sharing toiletries with the partner, sexual contact outside the partnership without condom use, blood transfusion, and intravenous drug abuse, but only the last 3 factors remained significantly associated with HCV infection in multiple logistic regression analysis. The relative risk of HCV infection increased according to the increased number of sexual partners. Thus sexual transmission must be considered a possible mode of infection in HCV infected persons without parenteral exposures. J. Med. Virol. 52:164–167, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.