Perinatal hepatitis C: Testing, Diagnosis, and Treatment During Pregnancy and Childhood

In 2020, the CDC updated screening recommendations to include universal hepatitis C testing of pregnant people to address the rising rates of hepatitis C in pregnancy and women of reproductive age. With more women of childbearing age becoming infected with hepatitis C, an increase in vertical transmission to infants is expected. Even in mothers with known hepatitis C status, appropriate testing and subsequent linkage to care for those infants is not routine. The education provided in this webinar will assist health care providers in their efforts to screen, diagnose, and treat hepatitis C virus for newborns and children.
**Instructions to access the course will be provided after you register.**
 

Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this recorded webinar, participants will be able to:

  • discuss perinatal hepatitis C and the epidemiology of hepatitis C in pregnancy;
  • illustrate the importance of identifying newborns and children at risk for HCV;
  • describe strategies to identify and screen newborns and children with an increased risk for hepatitis C;
  • recognize the clinical presentations of hepatitis C infections in children;
  • identify modes of transmission and prevention strategies; and
  • discriminate between current recommended therapies for children with chronic HCV infection. 

Target Audience
This presentation is appropriate for social service staff working with children youth and families, hospital and clinical-based social workers, in home visiting nurses and service providers, health educators, and public health professionals. 

Instructors
Anne-Marie Rick, MD MPH PhD is an Instructor of Pediatrics and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Director of Newborn Research Support Services at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. Rick works collaboratively with numerous investigators across the Schools of Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh to facilitate and implement clinical research in the newborn setting. Her clinical research is focused on infectious diseases related to maternal-infant health with active studies related to newborn sepsis, perinatal transmission of COVID-19 infections, and passive immune protection from maternal immunization during pregnancy, including influenza.

James Squires, Md, MSc is an associate professor in pediatrics, the director of the pediatric advanced/transplant hepatology fellowship, and associate medical director of Hepatology at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Squires is a co-investigator in the Children Liver Disease Research Network, an NIH-funded consortium working to improve the lives of children with rare cholestatic liver diseases. He is also a member of the Society of Pediatric Liver Transplant, a multifaceted organization focused on improving outcomes for children receiving liver transplantation. He is the Clinical Lead for the Starzl Network for Excellence in Liver Transplantation and has received funding from the Patient-centered Outcomes Research Institute to advance this work. 

Technology Requirements
This video is presented through the Vimeo Internet-based platform. A computer with high-speed internet connection and the ability to download and run this platform is required. 

For more information about this course or for assistance with registration, contact marphtc@pitt.edu.

Creation Date
This training was created October 20, 2021.