الفهرس 
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Abstract
SUMMERY
Prevalence of antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) in rural Egypt is among the highest in the world, with rates inmany communities in the range of 15% to 30%. Although mass campaigns to control schistosomiasis that took place decades earlier may have been responsible for much of current seroprevalence, it is also high in children too young to havebeen involved in those campaigns. Among these infected children, the source and route of transmission is generallyunknown. Recently, we reported results suggesting one sourceof infection is from the child’s parents, either directly through household contact or indirectly through shared needles orother possible fomites.
This study was done on150cases of healthy Egyptian children taken from the out -patient clinics of Benha university hospitals, (78) males, (72), females.
All patients were subjected to:
1- Good medical history from the mother with specialreference to age, sex, and risk factors of HCV exposureas blood transfusion, circumcision, surgical interference, tattoo, IV fluids and jaundice. And alsofamily history of HCV infection.
2- Complete clinical examination: General and systemicexamination stressing on manifestations of hepatitis(jaundice, hepatomegally ,symptoms and signs of hepatitis).
3- Investigations: Urine analysis for detection of urobilirubin or schistosomiasis, stool analysis for Schistosoma mansoni ova, complete blood count (CBC) and HCV antibodies by ELISA in serum samples and ALT (alanine transaminase).
Venous blood sample was withdrawn under complete aseptic technique by a clean venipuncture and then dispensed into 2 tubes:
1) 2ml of blood was delivered into EDTA containing tube (6mg%)for CBC.
2) A plain tube in which serum is separated and used for detection of HCV antibodies(Anti-HCV) byusing the third generation ELIZA technique and for assessment ALT.
- CBC was measured by automated blood counter.
- Urine analysis :for detection of any urobilirubin or schistosomiasis.
- Stool analysis :for Schistosomamansoni ova .
Results:-
The prevalence of seropositivity among studied group was 5% where the percentage of presence of risk factors was 18.7%. and there is no significant difference between seropositive and sero-negative cases regarding sex (P value 0.445). The sero-positive cases have a significant higher prevelance of risk factors than sero-negative cases (P value 0.002).
Shows that mean value of Hb & Haematocrite was significantly lower among sero-positive cases than seronegative ones (Pvalue 0.001). although all cases had normal mean value of ALT, but sero-positive cases showed significant higher mean value of ALT than sero-negative ones (P value 0.001).