Transplacental and Postnatal Transmission of the Hepatitis-associated Antigen

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Abstract
A total of 1,707 pregnant women were tested for hepatitis-associated antigen (HAA) during the third trimester. Only 26 (1.5%) were found to be HAA positive. Specimens of cord blood from 203 mothers (17 HAA positives) were negative. Only one HAA-positive mother who had clinical hepatitis at time of childbirth became negative by 12 weeks after delivery. One infant of a pair of twins became HAA-positive sometime between 22 and 36 weeks of age. The remaining 17 infants (from HAA-positive mothers) who were followed for four to 12 months remained negative throughout the period of observation.