Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in a Surgical Population of Southeast China: A Large-Scale Multicenter Study

Abstract

Background. Chronic HCV infection affects 80 million people globally and may progress to advanced liver disease. The present study aims to investigate the present epidemiology of HCV infection in a southeastern Chinese surgical patient cohort. Methods. Blood samples obtained from 78,484 surgical patients from 18 different city and county hospitals were enrolled. The incidence of serum HCV antibody positivity, HCV RNA load, and HCV genotyping, as well as demographics and relevant clinical history, were investigated. Data were stratified using the multistage cluster random sampling method and further analyzed using the SPSS-20 package. Results. HCV antibody positivity was detected in 0.15% of the population (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.12%–0.18%). Genotype 1b (55.74%) was the dominant type. The HCV infection peaked in the age groups of 16–20, 41–50, and 61–65 years, and it was higher in males than in females (0.19% vs. 0.13%, P<0.05). The geographical distribution of infection rates differed: 0.19% (95% CI: 0.14%–0.24%), 0.18% (95% CI: 0.13%–0.23%), and 0.06% (95% CI: 0.03–0.09%) in plain areas, islands, and valley regions, respectively. Patients with transfusion history and urban residence were associated with high HCV RNA levels (adjusted odds ratio = 11.24 and 6.20, P<0.05). Conclusion. The prevalence of HCV infection in this cohort from southeast China was 0.17%, which is lower than the reported 0.43% infection rate in China in 2006. This result can be (partially) explained by the improvement of blood donor screening and the successful campaign for the use of disposable syringes and needles.

Seroprevalence of Transfusion Transmissible Infections and Associated Risk Factors in Hospitalized Patients before Transfusion in Jinling Hospital Nanjing University: A Three-Year Retrospective Study

“…However, it was much higher than the rate of voluntary blood donors, which was 0.51% [14]. This study showed that the positive rate of anti-HCV was 0.92%, which is slightly higher than the 0.61% reported in the general population of China in 2009 [15]. Recent studies have shown that there are approximately 185 million infections worldwide, and the HCV seroprevalence rate has risen to 2.8% in the past decade [16].…”

Distribution of hepatitis C virus genotype and subtype between Mongolian and Han in Inner Mongolia

“…[ 29 ] In addition, some studies suggest that women have higher rates of viral clearance and a better response to HCV treatment than men. [ 30 ] HCV subtypes GT3a and GT3b are more prevalent in men than in women. However, the distribution of subtype GT2a in male carriers was much lower than that among women in this study (Table 3 ).…”

Sex and Race-Related DNA Methylation Changes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…Different HCC risk factors show different prevalence rates between men and women, which may also contribute to apparent sex-related differences in HCC incidence. It has been reported that the prevalence rates for chronic HBV and HCV infection are over two times and 50% higher, respectively, in men (10.7% for HBV and 0.19% for HCV) compared to women (4.4% for HBV and 0.13% for HCV) in Southeast Asia [66,67]. In the US, incidences of HBV and HCV are also higher in men (3.5/10,000 for HBV and 0.8/100,000 for HCV) than in women (2.0/100,000 for HBV and 0.44/10,000 for HCV) (2016 US viral hepatitis surveillance; https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/statistics/2016surveillance/, accessed on 19 February 2021).…”