Timing of Earliest Documented Positive Hepatitis C Laboratory Result Relative to Delivery Among Pregnant Persons With Active Infection in West Virginia, 2022-2023.

Authors

Kady Pack, Mamoon Yousaf, Rachel A Wattick, Brett Armstrong, Birgit Shanholtzer, Tonya Chaney, Shannon McBee, Alana G Hudson

Published in

Journal of viral hepatitis. Volume 33. Issue 11. Pages e70247.

Abstract

Direct-acting antiviral therapy can cure hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection; however, because treatment is not recommended during pregnancy, preconception treatment remains the primary strategy to prevent perinatal HCV exposure. West Virginia birth records from 2022 to 2023 were linked with statewide HCV laboratory surveillance data. This linked dataset was used to identify births to persons with active HCV infection and characterize the timing of the earliest documented positive HCV laboratory result relative to delivery. A total of 426 deliveries resulting in 433 HCV-exposed live-born infants were identified. Most pregnant persons were aged 25-34 years, White and insured by Medicaid. Overall, 38.5% had their earliest documented positive HCV laboratory result more than 5 years prior to delivery, 36.9% had their first documented positive test 1-5 years prior to delivery and 24.6% had their first documented positive test within 1 year before delivery and up to 2 weeks postpartum. These findings indicate that many pregnant persons with active HCV infection had documented longstanding infection prior to pregnancy, highlighting opportunities to strengthen linkage to care and access to curative treatment before pregnancy.

PMID:
42888860
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.