What is neonatal hepatitis C?

Hepatitis C is a disease of the liver that is caused by the hepatitis C virus. It’s considered to be the most serious of the hepatitis viruses. It’s spread by contact with contaminated blood, often through shared needle use.

A pregnant woman can pass the virus on to her developing fetus, which is especially vulnerable to illness because its immune system is not yet strong enough to permanently fight off infection. Since a baby in utero cannot completely get rid of an infection, neonatal hepatitis C remains in the body and can lead to a hepatitis C infection.

If you have hepatitis C, there is a slightly higher than 5 percent chance that your baby will be infected.

If a mother is known to have HCV, her newborn baby should be tested for presence of the virus four to six months after birth. If your baby is infected, she may have lifelong liver problems, such as scarring of the liver and liver cancer.

Symptoms & Causes

What are the symptoms of neonatal hepatitis C?

Most babies born with hepatitis C never develop symptoms, but the virus can still be causing internal damage to the liver.
If your child has symptoms, they may include the following:

Jaundice
Tenderness
Fever
Loss of appetite
Nausea and vomiting

What causes neonatal hepatitis C?

Neonatal hepatitis C can be transmitted through contaminated blood and is often passed on through shared needles. It can be spread from a pregnant mother to her fetus through the bloodstream.

Because hepatitis C is most often spread through contact with contaminated blood in needles shared among IV drug users, it’s important to never share needles. It’s best to stop using drugs altogether; your doctor can help you find treatment if you are having problems with substance abuse.

Diagnosis & Treatments

How do we diagnose neonatal hepatitis C?

For the mother: If you think you may have been exposed to the hepatitis C virus, your doctor can perform a blood test to check for the presence of the virus in your bloodstream.
For the baby: If you have hepatitis C, it’s possible that your baby will be born with it. Your doctor will screen your baby for hepatitis C four to six months after birth.

After we complete all necessary tests, our experts meet to review and discuss what they have learned. Then we will meet with you and your family to discuss the results and outline the best treatment options.

How do we treat neonatal hepatitis C?

Our physicians are expert, compassionate, and committed to focusing on the whole child, not just their condition — that's one reason we're frequently ranked as one of the top pediatric hospitals in the United States.

There is no cure for hepatitis C.

If you have hepatitis C, your doctor will check your baby four to six months after birth to test for the presence of the virus. If the test is positive, our physicians will continue to monitor your baby for any worsening of her condition and will treat any symptoms she may develop.

If your baby develops chronic hepatitis C, she may eventually require a course of antiviral medications or a liver transplant. Children born with hepatitis C are also at greater risk for liver cancer and cirrhosis (scarring) later in life.

How Boston Children’s Hospital approaches neonatal hepatitis C

Our Division of Infectious Diseases treats neonatal hepatitis C in infants. Our team care for children and adolescents with a variety of infections. In addition to treating children, we also are dedicated to researching better ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent infectious diseases.

Our Division of Newborn Medicine specializes in treating babies with a wide range of congenital and acquired conditions. Your baby will be seen by a specially trained team of physicians, nurses, therapists, and other health professionals who routinely diagnose and treat newborns with critical illnesses.

Our Center for Childhood Liver Disease has a multidisciplinary program that includes hepatology, surgery, interventional radiology, interventional GI endoscopy, and pathology.

Community-based care for newborns

Our Community Newborn Medicine Program cares for ill and convalescent newborns in a family-centered community setting. Our community-based Newborn Medicine faculty provide advanced newborn therapies in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and in special care nurseries (SCN) in several suburban medical centers that are affiliated with Boston Children's.

The affiliated nursery programs include:

NICU

SCN

Research & Clinical Trials

Our areas of innovation for neonatal hepatitis C

Our research has the broad objective of learning more about how diseases develop and spread as well as how the body uses its defenses to fight back. Investigators target viruses, bacteria, and fungi that cause disease in community-wide infections in the United States, in infections of children with compromised immune systems and in global public health.

Read about these ongoing research studies.

Neonatal Hepatitis C