The Cascade of HCV Care for HCV-infected Pregnant Women and Their Babies

HCV is vertically transmitted from mother to child, with an incidence of neonatal HCV infection of 2-5%. Antenatal and perinatal care settings provide a venue to identify HCV-infected mothers and their HCV exposed infants and an opportunity to link them all to care before they are lost to follow-up. A model will be developed that includes the long-term outcomes and costs of programs to identify and link HCV-infected pregnant women and their infants to HCV care.

A first step toward that goal is understanding the current cascade of HCV care in the US. Boston Medical Center has one of the largest programs in the US for opiate addicted pregnant women and their babies. The Neonatal Addiction Service Project RESPECT maintains an EMR-based registry of over 1100 mother-baby dyads. The data include longitudinal follow-up of all laboratory results and clinic visits. The RESPECT database will be used to investigate and report follow-up along the HCV cascade of care for HCV-infected opiate addicted mothers and their babies.