Objective: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major global public health problem and a leading cause of chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. Pregnant women constitute an important group because of the risk of mother-to-child transmission, particularly in the presence of maternal viremia. This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of HCV infection among pregnant women attending antenatal care at a tertiary care hospital in North India and to assess the proportion of seropositive women with active infection.

Patients and Methods: This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,519 pregnant women attending antenatal clinics at a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi. Serum samples were screened for anti-HCV antibodies using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. All seropositive samples were further evaluated for active infection by quantitative detection of HCV RNA using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Sociodemographic details and reported exposures were recorded descriptively.

Results: Anti-HCV antibodies were detected in 9 of 1,519 pregnant women, yielding a seroprevalence of 0.59% (95% CI: 0.27%-1.12%). Detectable HCV RNA was present in 5 of 9 (55.56%; 95% CI: 21.2%-86.3%) seropositive women, with viral loads ranging from 50.5 to 2,110 IU/mL. Among the anti-HCV-positive women, commonly reported exposures included ear/nose piercing, dental procedures, tattooing, and prior blood transfusion.

Conclusions: In this tertiary-care antenatal population, anti-HCV seroprevalence was low, and more than half of the seropositive women had detectable HCV RNA. These findings provide a local descriptive estimate of HCV serostatus and active viremia among pregnant women in one hospital-based setting.