This article is part of the supplement: Fourth Dominique International Conference. Maternal chronic viral infections transmitted to infants: from mechanisms to prevention and care

Lecture presentation

The natural history of vertically acquired HCV infection

Pier-Angelo Tovo

Department of Paediatrics, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

corresponding author email

Retrovirology 2008, 5(Suppl 1):L7doi:10.1186/1742-4690-5-S1-L7

Published:	9 April 2008

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

The World Health Organization estimates that about 3% of the world population is infected with HCV and 3 million individuals are infected each year. Most of those infected develop chronic liver disease leading, in some cases, to liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma.