The summaries are free for public
use. The Chronic Liver Disease
Foundation will continue to add and
archive summaries of articles deemed
relevant to CLDF by the Board of
Trustees and its Advisors.
Abstract Details
Estimating the prevalence of hepatitis C infection in New York City using surveillance data
Balter S, Stark JH, Kennedy J, Bornschlegel K, Konty K. Epidemiol Infect. 2013 May 9:1-8. [Epub ahead of print]
Source
Division of Disease Control, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NY, USA.
Abstract
SUMMARY Hepatitis C virus is the most common chronic blood-borne infection in the USA. Based on results of a serosurvey, national prevalence is estimated to be 1•3% or 3•2 million people. Sub-national estimates are not available for most jurisdictions. Hepatitis C surveillance data was adjusted for death, out-migration, under-diagnosis, and undetectable blood RNA, to estimate prevalence in New York City (NYC). The prevalence of hepatitis C infection in adults aged ⩾20 years in NYC is 2•37% (range 1•53-4•90%) or 146 500 cases of hepatitis C. This analysis presents a mechanism for generating prevalence estimates using local surveillance data accounting for biases and difficulty in accessing hard to reach populations. As the cohort of patients with hepatitis C age and require additional medical care, local public health officials will need a method to generate prevalence estimates to allocate resources. This approach can serve as a guideline for generating local estimates using surveillance data that is less resource prohibitive.