Hepatitis C Rates Soar Among Pregnant Women

By Alan Mozes Updated on July 21, 2023

Key Takeaways
Cases of hepatitis C, a liver infection spread by blood contact, have skyrocketed during the U.S. opioid epidemic

​The upshot: Cases of the disease are rising exponentially among pregnant women.

HCV drives up the risk for poor fetal development and preterm birth

PregnancyInfectious Disease

Hepatitis C Rates Soar Among Pregnant WomenBy Alan Mozes,Updated on July 21, 2023

Key Takeaways

Cases of hepatitis C, a liver infection spread by blood contact, have skyrocketed during the U.S. opioid epidemic

The upshot: Cases of the disease are rising exponentially among pregnant women

HCV drives up the risk for poor fetal development and preterm birth

FRIDAY, July 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) – In the two decades since the opioid epidemic took off, the addiction crisis has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Now, new research points to another grim outgrowth of the crisis on American health: a skyrocketing risk in pregnant women for hepatitis infection (HCV).

That's because the main risk factor for contracting hepatitis C — a liver infection spread by blood contact -- is injection drug use.

Between 1998 and 2018, prevalence of HCV among pregnant women shot up 16-fold, researchers found, driving up the risk for poor fetal development and fetal distress, as well as preterm birth.

And that's just the broad picture among pregnant women of all ages. Among those between 21 and 30, hepatitis C risk shot up more than 3000%.

"We do think the increase in HCV infections among pregnant women in our data is concerning," noted lead author Dr. Po-Hung (Victor) Chen, an assistant professor of medicine Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Comprehensive Transplant Center in Baltimore.

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