Hepatitis c how many people have it

Seek medical advice if you have persistent symptoms of hepatitis C or there's a risk you're infected, even if you do not have any symptoms. A blood test can be carried out to see if you have the infection. GPs, sexual health clinics, genitourinary medicine GUM clinics or drug treatment services all offer testing for hepatitis C. Early diagnosis and treatment can help prevent or limit any damage to your liver, as well as help ensure the infection is not passed on to other people.

Find out more about testing for hepatitis C. Hepatitis C can be treated with medicines that stop the virus multiplying inside the body.

These usually need to be taken for several weeks. CDC recommends that comprehensive prevention programs be implemented to avert drug-related hepatitis C transmission. These prevention programs should include regular testing for hepatitis C as well as hepatitis B and HIV ; rapid links to medical care for people who test positive; and access to substance abuse treatment, sterile injection equipment, and other services.

About 3. CDC and the U. Preventive Services Task Force recommend one-time hepatitis C testing for everyone born from to and regular testing for others at high risk. Once diagnosed, patients can take advantage of new, highly effective treatments that can cure the vast majority of infections in two to three months and take other steps to protect their health.

CDC is committed to helping communities use all effective tools to stop the spread of hepatitis C and reduce deaths associated with the disease. Through collaborative efforts, we can help reduce the rise in new infections and reverse trends in hepatitis C-related mortality, ultimately ensuring that far fewer people die of this disease.

A significant number of these will develop cirrhosis or liver cancer. HCV transmission has changed considerably, reflecting both the evolution of medicine and health and social changes. The HCV is usually spread through blood-to-blood contact. After the discovery of HCV in , antibody screening has drastically decreased the incidence of post-transfusion hepatitis.

Nowadays, routine blood donor screening by nucleic acid amplification testing for the presence of HCV RNA has been introduced in many countries.

It is conceivable that HCV screening could be offered to people born between and in the developed world and to people at high risk for HCV infection such as those who have received blood transfusions, blood products or organ donations before the s, prisoners, health care workers, drug users and infants born to HCV-infected women.

To achieve HCV elimination, health programmes should include improvement to access to health care services, increased screening and new projects to identify a submerged portion of patients with HCV infection.

Submerged people with HCV infection are both people who are unaware of their condition and people diagnosed with HCV but not yet treated. Based on these premises, this review will examine and discuss the epidemiological changes in contracting HCV, highlighting the ways in which to identify a submerged portion of patients with HCV infection.

Chronic infection can either lead to mild illness or develop into liver cirrhosis, liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma HCC. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC , out of people infected with HCV, around 60—70 will develop chronic liver disease, 5 to 20 will develop cirrhosis in a period ranging from 20 to 30 years and 1 to 5 people will die from the consequences of cirrhosis or HCC [ 2 ].

Chronic HCV infection without cirrhosis is however associated with worse quality of life and symptoms e. On large cohorts of patients, it is also widely demonstrated that chronic HCV infection is accompanied by extrahepatic manifestations including lymphoproliferative disorders e.

Overall, between and , 5 million people received HCV infection eradication treatment, but in the same year, 1. According to CDC data, the number of deaths due to HCV infection in compared to that in increased from 18, to 19, from 4. According to Eurostat data, Italy ranks in first place for the highest mortality rate due to viral hepatitis among the EU Member States, with 40 deaths from viral hepatitis per million inhabitants [ 7 ]. The mortality rate associated with HCV infection increases exponentially with age in both sexes and it is higher in southern Italy, with the highest peak among elderly people aged 60 or older.

Effective diagnostic approaches are required in order to increase early detection of HCV, as well as a link to care and treatment services [ 9 ]. Moreover, the preliminary results from an international registry showed high mortality rates in patients with coronavirus disease COVID and cirrhosis, because COVID can lead to deterioration in liver function.

According to the European Association for the Study of the Liver [ 13 ], given the new therapeutic options that allow for eradication of the infection, the focus of this branch of hepatology has moved onto screening, diagnostic strategies and access to treatment for infected people. New direct-acting antiviral agents DAAs have drastically changed HCV management and hence, the reservoir of infection has taken a great interest in terms of HCV elimination.

Submerged people with HCV infection are both people who are unaware of their condition and people diagnosed with HCV but not yet treated Fig.

Most important world and Italian data on HCV. The goal of public health programmes is to detect as many infected people as possible before they progress to clinical manifestations of the disease.

This goal is possible, taking into account all routes of transmission. Therefore, due to the importance of this matter, this review will examine and discuss the epidemiological changes in contracting HCV, highlighting the ways in which to identify a submerged portion of patients with HCV infection. Gower et al. The test for anti-HCV antibodies may remain positive even after virus clearance; moreover, a minimum rate may be falsely positive.

Saraswat et al. In this study, the viraemic prevalence varied between 0. Moreover, of the estimated The HCV is a major cause of liver disease. The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma increases in both sexes with increasing age. In HCV patients, the cumulative risk of evolving to hepatocellular carcinoma in the age group between 40 and 74 years is In April , the WHO published the first guidelines on HCV, which note how HCV infection takes a different path than other chronic viral infections including human immunodeficiency virus HIV infection because the treatments currently available allow eradication.

The guidelines are divided into nine recommendations, which include various aspects: the indication to increase the number of people subject to screening, suggestions on how to reduce damage to the liver and which treatments to use for different cases, according to the drugs approved up to December [ 20 ]. These guidelines were then updated in and because other new drugs had been approved in the meantime [ 21 ]. The new WHO strategy [ 22 ] introduces global goals against viral hepatitis.

HCV transmission has considerably changed, reflecting both the evolution of medicine, in particular the cloning of the HCV, and health and social changes. The main modes of HCV transmission are parenteral exposure, unapparent parenteral transmission and occupational exposure.

Blood transfusion was the main risk factor for HCV infection before donor screening for surrogate marker testing for non-A and non-B hepatitis which began in the mids, followed by screening for antibodies to HCV in [ 23 ]. After , the incidence of post-transfusion HCV infection has been halved by excluding HIV-positive people in developed countries [ 24 ].

Moreover, since , the availability of more sensitive tests has further reduced this prevalence. The WHO reports that 39 countries do not routinely screen blood transfusions for blood-borne viruses [ 24 , 25 ]. The generalised epidemic of HCV infection in Egypt is an example of health care—associated transmission originating from unsafe injection practices, where, in , HCV RNA prevalence was 7. In Italy, in , the prevalence was Blood-to-blood HCV transmission also occurs through haemodialysis and is more evident in developing populations.

According to recent data, the range is between 8. In Italy, from to , the prevalence of HCV infection among long-term dialysis patients decreased significantly from Baby boomers are people born after the Second World War roughly between and HCV infection is common among baby boomers [ 30 ], probably because the age cohort of baby boomers comprises a large proportion of people who have used illicit drugs in their lifetimes.

Considering the ongoing transmission of HCV in people who inject drugs PWID , it is important to highlight harm reduction efforts due to needle and syringe programmes and opioid substitution therapy.

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