A new government survey has found that the number of individuals with hepatitis C in the U.S. has decreased.
A survey of individuals who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2003 and 2010 showed that the number of Americans with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) has declined. From 3.2 million hepatitis C cases for the period 1999 to 2002 affecting about 1.3 percent of the population, the number has now fallen to only 2.7 million or about 1 percent of the U.S. population.
The researchers also noted that of the 30,074 surveyed, around 2.86 million were 20 years old and over, 81 percent of which were born between 1945 and 1965. "Infected persons were more likely to be aged 40 to 59 years, male, and non-Hispanic black and to have less education and lower family income," the researchers reported in "Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection in the United States, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003 to 2010" published in the Annals of Internal Medicine March 4.
It may appear that the declining number of hepatitis C cases is due to the availability of new and better treatments but researchers think otherwise. New drugs for treating hepatitis C infection such as Gilead's Sovaldi may provide more effective cure and fewer side effects but with costs as high as $84,000 for a 12-week treatment, the researchers said that most patients with the disease will find the treatment too prohibitive.
"Our study and others have found that persons with chronic hepatitis C virus infection are frequently poor and less educated, factors that could pose barriers to the receipt of these costly novel hepatitis C virus treatments," said study author Scott Holmberg, from the CDC, and his colleagues.
The researchers also think patients with HCV infection were dying. They have noted that if better medicines were curing patients, the number of individuals with current HCV infection should decline and the number of people infected with HCV should increase. The number of incidence in both groups, however, fell in parallel suggesting that those who were infected were dying.
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease that primarily affects the liver and is spread through blood-to-blood contact through transfusion, intravenous drug use and use of non-sterilized medical equipment.
