SEN virus co‐infection among HCV‐RNA‐positive mothers, risk of transmission to the offspring and outcome of child infection during a 1‐year follow‐up

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Abstract
Summary.  SEN is a newly discovered blood‐transmissible virus. Among its variants, SENV‐D and ‐H are most often associated with non‐A, ‐E hepatitis. Very little is known about the risk of vertical transmission of the virus. By using polymerase chain reaction with specific primers for SENV‐D and ‐H, we investigated the prevalence of SENV‐H and ‐D infection, the transmission rate of SENV infection and clinical features of SENV‐infected children in 89 hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐positive human immunodeficiency virus type 1‐negative mothers. SENV infection was found in 36 (40%) mothers, and SENV‐D was more frequent than SENV‐H infection (34/36, 94%vs 5/36, 14%, P < 0.01). No difference in SENV infection rates was found between injection drug user (IDU) mothers (17/51, 33%) and mothers with no risk for bloodborne infection (19/38, 50%, P = ns). SENV‐H infection was found only in IDU mothers and mothers with HCV genotype1b. Both SENV‐D and ‐H can be transmitted to the offspring with an overall rate of 47%. Vertical transmission of HCV does not facilitate SENV infection of the offspring. Among 17 SENV‐infected children, none was co‐infected with HCV. Maternal HCV genotype or viral load does not interfere with mother‐to‐infant transmission of SENV. Persistence of SENV infection was demonstrated in 100% of infected children after 1‐year follow‐up, but none had clinical evidence of liver disease.