Health Agency Says Hepatitis Cases Down Sharply

CDC said Thursday that new US viral hepatitis cases dropped significantly from 1995 to 2005. Approximately 500,000 Americans became infected with hepatitis viruses in 1995, compared to around 100,000 in 2005, the agency reported.

Hepatitis A and B incidence dropped to the lowest levels recorded since the government began tracking cases more than four decades ago. From 1995 to 2005, new cases of acute hepatitis A declined 88 percent to an incidence rate of 1.5 per 100,000 people. Concurrently, cases of acute hepatitis B dropped 79 percent to a rate of 1.8 per 100,000 people, CDC said. A decline in hepatitis C cases was also seen, but these figures should be viewed with caution because many people do not develop symptoms immediately and may not be aware they have the virus.

Annemarie Wasley, a CDC epidemiologist, credited the drop in cases to stepped-up prevention efforts, including widespread use of hepatitis A and B vaccines. "Rates are declining for all ages, but much of the decline is driven by declining rates in children, which is the age group that has been covered by routine vaccination for both hepatitis A and B," she said, adding that more progress is needed to lower rates among IV drug users, homosexuals, and heterosexuals with multiple sex partners.

CDC recommends that all children ages 12-23 months be vaccinated against hepatitis A, along with people in high-risk groups such as international travelers, gay men, and drug users. The agency recommends hepatitis B vaccine for infants, as well as for people with multiple sex partners and for IV drug users.

Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, called the declining hepatitis rates, particularly in strains A and B, "one of the big public health success stories of the last 10 years."

The report, "Surveillance for Acute Viral Hepatitis - United States, 2005," was published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (2007;56(SS03):1-24).

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