Prevalence of Hep C-Positive Pregnancies Increased From 1998 to 2018

TUESDAY, July 25, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- From 1998 to 2018, there was an increase in the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive pregnancies, according to a study published online July 21 in JAMA Network Open.

Po-Hung Chen, M.D., Ph.D., from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues estimated the temporal trends of HCV-positive pregnancies during the opioid epidemic and examined HCV-associated maternal and perinatal outcomes in a cross-sectional study of data from 1998 through 2018. Participants included U.S. women from the National Inpatient Sample of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.

The researchers found that more than 70 million hospital admissions resulted in childbirth or spontaneous abortion during the study period. Of these, 0.20 percent involved mothers with HCV; compared with HCV-negative mothers, HCV-positive mothers were more often White (77.4 percent), low-income (40.0 percent), and likely to have histories of tobacco, alcohol, and opioid use (41.7, 1.8, and 28.9 percent, respectively). During the study period, there was a 16-fold increase in the prevalence of HCV-positive pregnancies, reaching 5.3 cases per 1,000 pregnancies in 2018. There was a threefold to 31-fold range in age-specific prevalence increases (age, 41 to 50 and 21 to 30 years, respectively). HCV positivity during pregnancy was associated with higher odds of cesarean delivery, preterm labor, poor fetal growth, or fetal distress; no significant differences were seen in gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, eclampsia, or stillbirths.

"Overall, our data support the recommendations for universal HCV screening with each pregnancy proposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists," the authors write. "Perinatal care and delivery may be the initial health care exposure for many women."

Two authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

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