According to a new
study by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar
(WCMC-Q) and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK, Egypt
has the highest infection level of the disease in the world. About 15%
of the population carry HCV, with at least 100,000 new cases every year,
but the proportion of these new infections that occur through different
transmission routes is not well understood. This study is the first,
for any country, to estimate the number of new cases of HCV as a
consequence of mother-to-child (vertical) transmission.
The authors
estimated that in 2008, between 3,000 and 5,000 new cases of the
infection were caused by this transmission route, which can occur during
pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period from an infected mother
to her child.
In addition, the findings show that mother-to-child
transmission is an important transmission route among children under
five years of age, contributing between a third and a half of new cases
in that age group in Egypt.
Read more... Labels: Egypt, Epidemiology, mother-to-child transmission