General Epidemiological Parameters of Viral Hepatitis A, B, C, and E in Six Regions of China: A Cross-Sectional Study in 2007

Abstract

BackgroundViral hepatitis is a serious health burden worldwide. To date, few reports have addressed the prevalence of hepatitis A, B, C, and E in China. Therefore, the general epidemiological parameters of viral hepatitis remain unknown.Principal FindingsIn this cross-sectional study, we performed a serological prevalence analysis of viral hepatitis A, B, C, and E in 8,762 randomly selected Chinese subjects, which represented six areas of China. The overall prevalence of anti-Hepatitis C virus antibody (anti-HCV) was 0.58%, which was much lower than was estimated by WHO. The prevalences of Hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-Hepatitis B virus surface protein antibody (HBsAb), and anti-Hepatitis B virus core protein antibody (HBcAb) were 5.84%, 41.31%, and 35.92%, respectively, whereas in the group of subjects less than 5 years old, these prevalences were 1.16%, 46.77%, and 8.69% respectively, which suggests that the Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-carrier population is decreasing, and the nationwide HBV vaccine program has contributed to the lowered HBV prevalence in the younger generation in China. Meanwhile, a large deficit remains in coverage provided by the national HBV immune program. In addition, our data suggested the possibility that HBsAb may not last long enough to protect people from HBV infection throughout life. The overall prevalence of anti-Hepatitis A virus antibody (anti-HAV) and anti-Hepatitis E virus antibody (anti-HEV) were as high as 72.87% and 17.66%, respectively. The indices increased with age, which suggests that a large proportion of Chinese adults are protected by latent infection. Furthermore, the pattern of HEV infection was significantly different among ethnic groups in China.ConclusionsOur study provided much important information concerning hepatitis A, B, C, and E prevalence in China and will contribute to worldwide oversight of viral hepatitis.

Hepatitis C virus infection in the general population: A large community-based study in Mianyang, West China

“…Males showed a 1.2 times higher HCV infection rate than females, whereas other studies have reported equality between sexes or even female predominance in HCV infection (8,(20)(21)(22). The underlying reason of male predominance in this study is still not clear.…”

“…A seroepidemiology survey of hepatitis C infection is important for prevention and treatment of the disease (16). In 1992, the first nationwide cross-sectional seroepidemiologic survey of hepatitis C infection with a total of approximately 68,000 participants showed the prevalence of anti-HCV was 3.2% in the general population aged from 1 to 59 years (8). However, two recent studies reported a lower prevalence in the general population.…”

“…The prevalence of HCV infection ranged from 0.43% to 3.2%, and varied geographically and temporally in China (7)(8)(9). During the past decades, most of studies related to HCV infection in China focused on hospital based and high risk population groups including blood donors and receivers, drug abusers, individuals with HIV, and sex workers (10)(11)(12)(13); while there were only a few large-scale studies in China which concentrated on HCV prevalence in the general population (8,9,14).…”

Hepatitis B Virus Infection and Exposure Among Foreign-Born Asian Americans in the U.S.

“…Our study confirmed the results of some studies that the presence of anti-HBc among non-infected individuals generally increased with age (18,20,24,25). However in our study, the presence of anti-HBc peaked among those in the 51 -60 age group while in a previous study of a large foreign-born Chinese and Korean American sample, it peaked among those older than 60 years (8).…”

“…This rate of presence of anti-HBc was much higher than the national average (5, 6), but comparable to the results found from other studies of Asian immigrants (9,10) and studies of individuals from HBV-endemic Asian countries (20,21). Our finding indicates that Asian Americans are substantially more likely to have been exposed to HBV than the general U.S. population.…”