Transmission of hepatitis type B from healthy HBsAg-positive mothers.

Seventeen mothers, all apparently healthy carriers of hepatitis-B surface antigen (HBsAg) during pregnancy, and their children were studied for four to five years to determine the transmission rate of hepatitis-B virus infection. All the mothers had antibody against hepatitis-B core antigen in addition to HBsAg. One of them, a renal transplant recipient, was persistently positive for hepatitis-B-associated e antigen (HBeAg), while the remaining 16, who were detected during screening of healthy pregnant women were positive for anti-HBe. Evidence of infection was found in the child and husband of the woman positive for HBeAg, while none of the 29 children and five husbands of the anti-HBe-positive women became infected.