the prevalence of hepatitis c virus infection in pregnant women in duhok city, kurdistan region of iraq: a brief report

Background: hepatitis c virus (hcv) is a public health issue, worldwide. hcvinfection during pregnancy is associated with vertical transmission. objectives: the current study aimed at investigating the prevalence of hcv in pregnant women. methods: the current cross sectional study was conducted in duhok, kurdistan region of iraq from january 2016 to december 2018. in the study, pregnant women were tested for hcv antibodies (hcv-ab) positivity. the infection then was confirmed by hcv-real time polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr). results: during the study, 37,200 pregnant women were recruited; 15 (0.04%) subjects were positive for hcv-ab. to confirm the infection, hcv-rt pcr was performed for subjects with positive results and only three cases were confirmed using this method; giving a prevalence of 3/37,200 (0.001%). conclusions: hcv prevalence in pregnantwomenwas low in duhok city. continuous screening is required to control infection and prevent vertical transmission.