Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a global health problem .Egypt reports the highest incidence in the world. Objectives: The objectives of this work were to detect the prevalence of asymptomatic HCV infection among a sample of non risky school aged Egyptian children in comparison with other two high risk groups, and to identify some underlying factors of seropositivity. Materials and methods: This comparative cross sectional study was conducted upon 3 groups of children attending Benha University Hospital; group (1) included 300 non risky children, group (2) included 20 thalassemic patients on repeated blood transfusion and group (3) included further 20 patients with chronic renal failure on regular hemodialysis. All children were subjected to history taking, physical examination and laboratory investigations for HCV antibodies by 4th generation ELISA, for positive cases RT- PCR, complete blood count (CBC), and liver function tests (LFT) were done. Results: The results revealed that asymptomatic HCV infection was detected in 3% of group (1), 45% in group (2) and 50% in group (3). The main risk factors for transmission were blood transfusion, frequent intravenous injections, circumcision by non medical personnel, surgical and dental procedures. Conclusion: The results revealed that HCV seropositivity is detectable in 4% of apparently healthy school aged children. PCR should be done for all HCV seropositive cases to confirm the presence of viremia |
