Hepatitis C virus infects around 3 per cent of the world’s population,
causing liver failure and death, but little is known about how it is passed from
mother to child. A British survey of infected mothers has now revealed that 7.4
per cent of those whose babies were delivered normally or by emergency Caesarean
section passed the virus on, but no babies delivered by Caesarean before the
onset of labour were infected (The Lancet, vol 356, p 904).
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