Hepatitis C virus Infection in Children

Abstract

Hipatitis C virus (HCV) fwas first labelled non A non B hipatitis virus associated with blood Transfusion in 1975. It was not until 1989 that the viral genome was eloned, sequenced and thereafter named Hipatitis C virus. It is the third hepatotropin virus of public health important, affecting more than 175 milion people worldwide. It is a single-strand RNA virus approximately 3.6 kb. In children, vertical transmission is the most prevalence mode of transmission and is said to occur in 0 to 36 percent of infants born to various mothere, with the highest rates occuring in mother who are co-infected with HIV. The tread of pathological features in the liver comprises portal aggregates of monocular cells, steatosis, bile duct Epithelial cell damage. A ITCV Infection is rare largely because it is clinically inapparent and therefore goes unrecognised. The diagnos of HCV infection is based on the detection of antibodies to HCV artigents of the detection of viral RNA. Although pegylated infection ribovilin are widely use in the treatment of HCV infection, their efficacy is still far from being universally accepted. Infection in early childhood is associated with long sequele in adulthood and for this reason, there has been an explosion of studies in adults and not so much in children. This paper review the existing krowledge on the clinical features, natural history in nepothogenesis and treatment of TICV infection in children.