Lin H H, Hsieh R P, Wang C Y, Chen P J, Chen D S
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, R.O.C.
J Formos Med Assoc. 1991 May;90(5):476-9.
To assess the prevalence of an antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) in pregnant women in Taiwan, and elucidate whether or not there is superinfection of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in such cases, we investigated two independent groups of pregnant women. Group A included 294 without serum alanine aminotranferase (ALT) screening, and group B included 171 pregnant women with an abnormal ALT level (greater than 45 IU/L) who were recruited from 9,523 pregnant women screened for ALT. Blood samplings were taken at early gestation and each serum sample was tested with an HCV EIA kit for anti-HCV. The results showed that 1 woman in group A (0.34%) and 4 women in group B (2.3%) were anti-HCV-positive. However, all 5 cases showed positive antibodies to both the hepatitis B surface and core antigens, but were negative for the hepatitis B surface antigen. Therefore, the prevalence of anti-HCV in pregnant women by current assay in Taiwan is 0.34% without ALT screening, but increases to 2.3% among abnormal ALT cases. The prevalence rate is less than the rates reported in other countries. If confirmed by subsequent study, the results suggest that infection with HCV is low among healthy young females in Taiwan today.
为评估台湾孕妇中丙型肝炎病毒抗体（抗-HCV）的流行情况，并阐明此类病例中是否存在乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）的重叠感染，我们调查了两组独立的孕妇。A组包括294名未进行血清丙氨酸转氨酶（ALT）筛查的孕妇，B组包括从9523名接受ALT筛查的孕妇中招募的171名ALT水平异常（大于45 IU/L）的孕妇。在妊娠早期采集血样，每份血清样本用HCV EIA试剂盒检测抗-HCV。结果显示，A组有1名女性（0.34%）抗-HCV呈阳性，B组有4名女性（2.3%）抗-HCV呈阳性。然而，所有5例均显示乙型肝炎表面抗原和核心抗原抗体呈阳性，但乙型肝炎表面抗原呈阴性。因此，台湾目前的检测方法显示，未进行ALT筛查的孕妇中抗-HCV的流行率为0.34%，但在ALT异常的病例中增至2.3%。该流行率低于其他国家报告的流行率。如果后续研究得到证实，结果表明目前台湾健康年轻女性中HCV感染率较低。
