Detection of Hepatitis C Virus amongst Pregnant Women, in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of HCV among pregnant women in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is an important cause of chronic liver disease and despite the introduction of an effective screening policy for all blood donations, transmission continues to occur by other means. In this study, we determined the prevalence of HCV to ascertain the risk of vertical transmission in kaduna state, Nigeria. Two hundred (200) blood samples (5ml) were tested for the presence of anti-HCV antibodies by HCV ELISA (Biotech Laboratories, UK). All the anti-HCV positive samples were tested for the present of HCV RNA by RT-PCR using HCV specific primers (Sacace Biotechnologies, Italy). Of the 200 pregnant women tested, 9 (4.5%) were positive for anti- HCV antibodies. All the anti-HCV positive samples were positive for HCV RNA. Genotype subtype 1b was found in the entire HCV RNA positive sample. HCV therefore affect pregnant women in Kaduna State, Nigeria with a prevalence rate of 4.5% posing the risk of vertical transmission.