Mother-To-Child Transmission

During Hepatitis Awareness Month, the CDC and allied public health organizations launched educational campaigns to raise awareness of viral hepatitis, deflate stigma around the infection and encourage early testing and vaccination.

Belize, Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines became the latest nations to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) announced.

BOSTON — In this video, Nancy S. Reau, MD, FAASLD, AGAF, reviews three abstracts presented at The Liver Meeting related to pregnancy and pediatric treatments for hepatitis C virus infection.

BOSTON — Healio spoke with Norah Terrault, MD, MPH, FAASLD, about presentations from The Liver Meeting that investigated testing and treatment of hepatitis C virus infection among pregnant individuals.

Bolstering the introduction of hepatitis B birth dose vaccines and verifying progress in eliminating mother-to-child transmission are among strategies critical to achieving hepatitis B virus control in Africa, WHO and CDC researchers wrote.

In Tanzania, pregnant women with HIV who had access to antiretroviral therapy for life had less than a 2% risk for vertical transmission, according to data published in The Lancet HIV.

Although progress has been made in eliminating mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B by 2030, 26% of countries have not introduced a birth dose into routine hepatitis B vaccination, noted data in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Vertical transmission of COVID-19 is possible but rare, with fewer than 2% of babies born to mothers with COVID-19 testing positive for the virus, according to a meta-analysis published in The BMJ.

Researchers said the most effective approach to preventing vertical transmission of hepatitis B virus was a combination of maternal use of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, or TDF, and postnatal immunization.

Despite diagnoses of hepatitis C virus and cirrhosis in mothers, many infants are not tested within guidelines for possible transmission, according to a presentation at The Digital Liver Meeting Experience.