Baltimore: Opiate use has become an epidemic in the United States that has claimed millions of American lives.
American media reports, citing a recent study, said that another serious consequence of the drug crisis in the United States is the spread of hepatitis C among pregnant women. The main reason is the exposure to the blood of the infected person, i.e. the reuse of injections used for other addictions.
The researchers found that between 1998 and 2018, there was a 16-fold increase in the prevalence of hepatitis among pregnant women, while the risk increased by more than 3,000 percent. Hepatitis infection not only puts pregnant women at risk, but also increases the risk of poor pregnancy growth and premature birth, the researchers said.
“The increase in HCV infections among pregnant women is alarming,” said lead author Dr. Po Hung Chen, assistant professor at the Transplant Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, US. They also expressed concern that the number of infected pregnant women exposed in the study may be overestimated, considering that during the study period there would be many women whose doctors did not diagnose hepatitis infection during pregnancy.
That’s why the study’s findings likely don’t reflect the true number of HCV infections among pregnant women in the U.S., because the number could be much higher, Dr.
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