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Pregnant women with untreated HIV have a 25 percent chance
of passing the virus on to their babies during gestation or delivery.
While a considerably lower percentage with hepatitis C transmit the
virus to their baby (about five percent), infants who do contract it
are at risk for developing cirrhosis or liver cancer as adults.
The stigma of drug use and the accompanying fear of going to
the doctor, or being honest about their drug use if they do go, puts
mothers’ health—and the well-being of their fetuses, chi