Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be a serious public health concern and one of the major public health priorities. In 2005, it was estimated that there are 185 million anti-HCV positive people in the world, which constitutes 2.8% of the global population. Our study estimates the anti-HCV seroprevalence in the working age population (15–64 years-old), mostly urban and suburban residents, in Poland from 2004 to 2014. The studied group consisted of 61,805 working-age population representatives whose data were obtained from electronic medical records of an outpatient clinic network operating on a countrywide level. Positive anti-HCV test results were obtained in 957 patients, representing 1.5% of the whole population studied throughout the analysed period. The average age of all anti-HCV positive patients was 36.8 years. Analysis of the data suggests that the proportion of anti-HCV positive patients decreased over the study period (mean positive anti-HCV = -0.0017 × year + 3.3715; R2 = 0.7558). In 2004, positive results were noted among 3.2% of patients undergoing HCV antibody tests, but in 2014, the percentage of patients with a positive result stood at 1.1%. The apparent decrease affected men and women similarly. Our study also provides evidence that screening people born before 1965 could be beneficial.
Highlights
Liver cirrhosis, liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma are possible long-term consequences of untreated hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection [1,2,3,4,5], which the World Health Organization (WHO) considers as a serious public health concern and one of the major public health priorities [6]
There is evidence that an improvement of diagnostics and treatment effectiveness may significantly reduce the burden of HCV infections in Poland [5,51]
A study using a modelling approach estimated that, until 2030, the HCV prevalence is projected to decrease by 5%
Summary
Liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma are possible long-term consequences of untreated hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection [1,2,3,4,5], which the World Health Organization (WHO) considers as a serious public health concern and one of the major public health priorities [6]. Mother-to-child transmission occurs as well; it is relatively uncommon, affecting an estimated 4% of children of HCV-infected mothers [11,12]. In the United States (US), HCV infection prevalence is at 1.6% (2.1% in men and 1.2 % in women) and higher (75% of all cases) in people born between 1945 and 1965 [16]. For this reason, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the American Gastroenterology Association (AGA) recommend screening for all individuals born in this period [17,18]
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