Fewer Americans Are Living With Hepatitis C, Because More Have Died

This article was reported by the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Times reported that 2003-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data seemed to indicate declining hepatitis C prevalence among Americans. However, CDC and National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) analysts believe that the data actually showed increased mortality among people chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV).

CDC and NCHS analysts estimated that approximately 2.68 million U.S. residents (1 percent of the population older than five) had current HCV infections, and 900,000 people once had HCV but no longer had an active infection. Approximately 1.3 percent of Americans had a "past or current" HCV infection. Earlier studies estimated that 1.6 percent of Americans had past or current HCV infections in years 1999-2002, and 1.8 percent of the population had a past or current HCV infection in the years 1988-1994.