A large cohort of rhesus-negative women in Ireland were inadvertently infected with hepatitis C virus following exposure to contaminated anti-D immunoglobulin in 1977-8. This major iatrogenic episode was discovered in 1994. We studied 36 women who had been infected after their first pregnancy, and compared them to an age- and parity-matched control group of rhesus-positive women. The presence of hepatitis C antibody was confirmed in all 36 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and by recombinant immunoblot assay, while 26 (72%) of the cohort were HCV-RNA-positive (type 1b) on PCR testing. In the 20 years post-infection, all members of the study group had at least one pregnancy, and mean parity was 3.5. They had a total of 100 pregnancies and 85 of these went to term. There were four premature births, one being a twin pregnancy, and 11 spontaneous miscarriages. One miscarriage occurred in the pregnancy following HCV infection. There were two neonatal deaths due to severe congenital abnormalities in the PCR-positive women. Of the children born to HCV-RNA positive mothers, only one (2.3%) tested positive for the virus. Significant portal fibrosis on liver biopsy was confined to HCV-RNA-positive mothers apart from one single exception in the antibody-positive HCV-RNA-negative group. Comparison with the control group showed no increase in spontaneous miscarriage rate, and no significant difference in obstetric complications; birth weights were similar for the two groups.

There is dearth of data regarding child abuse in Islamic Republic of Pakistan due to the strong taboo about discussing the child abuse. This is pioneering study aimed to providing the estimates on the prevalence of child abuse in Pakistan. This is a cross-sectional and retrospective study on the prevalence of child abuse using simple random sampling. The study was conducted using standardized International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect tool International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Child Abuse Screening Tools Retrospective version. Data were collected from 274 students of 4-year BS program in the University of the Punjab, Lahore. According to the findings, physical abuse has the highest rate 57% (46% females and 68% males) of prevalence. Emotional abuse is the second highest form of abuse with 53% prevalence rate (54% females and 53% males). Among the other forms neglect is 40% (40% females and 40% males) and 41% respondents (39% females and 44% males) disclosed being sexually abused. Most frequently reported category of the perpetrator according to the findings of this study are the parents (20%) followed by friends (16%) and teachers (14%). Single year with highest report of all forms of abuse is 12th year, and the age span with maximum occurrence of abuse is from 10 to 15 years for all forms of abuse. Microsoft Excel was used for data processing and interpretation.

Due to recent high profile media reported cases of child sexual abuse in Pakistan a serious public concern is observed with a strong punitive public demand rather than proactive and preventive approach as solution. Instead of reactive approach, it is needed to formulate a policy based on valid causal ground for solution of this problem. Purpose of this cross sectional study is to provide a causal ground based on evidence based social ecological model for holistic policy response for addressing issue of CSA. Using ICAST-R, equal number of male and female 274 university students were asked about experience of CSA, re-victimization, age at the time of CSA, perpetrators, disclosure patterns and social support after disclosure of CSA. On the basis of data, evidence based social ecological model was used for explanation of individual, family, societal and institutional factors related to CSA in Pakistan for formulation of effective prevention strategy. According to findings most frequent age at the time of CSA is between 6th to 18th year of age with 9th year as most frequently reported. Experience of CSA was reported more frequently by boys than girls. Peers were identified as highest reported perpetrators and majority of the perpetrators were known to the child. Instead of reactive and punitive approach towards issue of CSA it is needed to formulate a policy based on social ecological factors of society.

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