Hepatitis C virus infection acquired in childhood

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection occurs less frequently in children than in adult patients, and the natural history, prognosis, and clinical significance of HCV infection in children are poorly defined. We report here a descriptive follow-up of the clinical course, biochemical data, and viral markers observed in 37 children with anti-

Determinants of liver disease progression in children with chronic hepatitis C virus infection

“…The mean grade of necroinflammation, expressed as HAI, in our group of patients was 4.3 ±2.7 points, which is comparable with the observations of Goodman et al (mean HAI: 5.1 points) [16]. Studies of other authors, mainly from Europe and Japan, also suggest a rather benign course of liver disease in HCV-infected children [7,17,20,21]. This is in contrast with other findings, mainly from the United States, pointing out that chronic hepatitis C may lead to severe fibrosis, cirrhosis and even hepatocellular carcinoma in childhood [5,15,22].…”

“…Hepatitis C is a progressive disease, with 10-20% of infected patients developing cirrhosis and about 7% of adult patients with cirrhosis progressing to hepatocellular carcinoma [3,4]. However, little is known about the disease progression in patients infected in childhood and, to date, only sparse and inconsistent data are available regarding liver histopathology in HCV-infected children [5,6,7]. In addition, the relevance of different markers as predictors of chronic disease progression is not well studied [4,6].…”

Incidence and risk factors for community-acquired hepatitis C infection from birth to 5 years of age in rural Egyptian children

“…The initial infection in children is generally asymptomatic and not recognized. 19,20 Asymptomatic HCV seroconversions were also noted in the mothers of our infant cohort. 8,9 It was previously reported that HCV hepatitis detected in Egyptian communities was predominately flare-ups of chronic infections rather than acute infections.…”

“…Spontaneous HCV-RNA clearance among children has been well documented. 19,20,27 In the USA, Luban et al found that 4 of 43 (9%) post-transfusion HCV-infected children cleared viraemia as assessed by two negative RT-PCR tests 6 months apart, giving an estimated rate of clearance of 1.7% per year. 20 Forty-five percent of German children with a mean age of 2.8 years infected by HCV-contaminated blood products resolved their infections after a follow-up averaging 20 years.…”

Symptomatic and Pathophysiologic Predictors of Hepatitis C Virus Progression in Pediatric Patients

“…Previous data suggest that patients with chronic HCV infection are generally asymptomatic (16). The findings reported here suggest that there is a strong justification to do a more careful clinical assessment of symptoms of patients with HCV infection at initial presentation.…”