Hepatitis C Statistics

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Hepatitis C Statistics

 

General Statistics

  • Hepatitis C virus commonly spread through sharing of needles, or other equipment to inject drugs. 1
  • Risk of transmission occurs more if the person has a pre-existing virus such as HIV. 1
  • 3.2 million persons in the United States have chronic Hepatitis C virus infection. 1
  • Approximately 75%-85% of people infected with Hepatitis C virus develop chronic infection. 1
  • After exposure, average time of symptoms is 6-7 weeks; however, most do not have any symptoms. 1
  • Approximately 70-80% of people with acute Hepatitis C do not have symptoms. 1
  • Of every 100 people infected with Hepatitis C about: 1
  • 75-85 people will develop chronic Hepatitis C Virus infection; of those
    • 60-70 people will go on to develop chronic liver disease
    • 5-20 people will go on to develop cirrhosis over a period of 20-30 years
    • 1-5 people will die from cirrhosis or liver failure.

 

African American Hepatitis C Statistics

  • African American represents 13% of the U.S population, but make up about 22% of the chronic hepatitis C cases.1
  • African Americans have significantly higher rates of chronic hepatitis C infections than do Caucasians and other ethnic groups. 1
  • 4 of every 100 infant born to mothers with Hepatitis C become infected with the virus. 1
  • Chronic liver disease, often Hepatitis C-related is the leading cause of death among people ages 45-64 among African Americans. 1
  • Lack of testing for Hepatitis C among African Americans. 1
  • There is no vaccine for Hepatitis C. 1
  • 26 Americans die each day from Hepatitis C complications. 2
  • Each year approximately 170,000 new cases of HCV occur in the United States of America. 2

Source:  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/AfricanAmerica-HepC.htm

 

Hepatitis C Now Trumps HIV as Cause of Death in U.S.

More U.S. residents are now dying of hepatitis C complications than HIV-related illnesses, according to data summarized in the February 21 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

  • The discovery that HCV infection is now responsible for more deaths than HIV infection is due, in large part, to the continued decline of AIDS-related deaths over the decade. Whereas HIV contributed to six per 100,000 deaths in 1999, the rate dropped to less than four per 100,000 deaths in 2007.
  • Hepatitis C–related deaths have increased sharply.
  • With respect to crude numbers, roughly 12,700 HIV-related deaths were reported to the National Center for Health Statistics in 2007. More than 15,000 HCV-related deaths were reported to the center that year.
  • Co-infection with HIV nearly doubled the risk of death from HBV-related complications and quadrupled the risk of death from HCV-associated liver disease.

Viral Hepatitis Surveillance 2009 - http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/Statistics/2009Surveillance/PDFs/2009HepSurveillanceRpt.pdf