Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection according to the year of birth: identification of risk groups

PÉREZ, P.; DI LELLO, F.A.; PÉREZ, P.; DI LELLO, F.A.; NEUKAM, K.; CAMPOS, R.H.; RIDRUEJO, E.; NEUKAM, K.; MARTÍNEZ, A.P.; CAMPOS, R.H.; RIDRUEJO, E.; MARTÍNEZ, A.P.

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES : OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY.

SPRINGER

Año: 2018 vol. 37 p. 247 - 254

0934-9723

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening according to the year of birth is recommended is some countries based on epidemiological data. The aim of this study was to analyze anti-HCV prevalence among people born between 1905 and 2015 in Argentina. Patients attending a tertiary care hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 2001 to 2015, who had a determination of anti-HCV, were included. Of 22,079 patients analyzed, 1,152 (5.2%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.9%?5.5%) patients showed positive anti-HCV and 729 (3.3%; 95% CI: 3.1%?3.5%) patients showed detectable viremia. Three risk groups were identified (HCV prevalence): low-risk group?outpatient clinics/emergencies (2.8%); intermediate-risk group?in-patients (8%); and high-risk group?dialysis/transplants (27.2%). In the low-risk group, being born in 1973 or before was identified as a cut-off value for the risk of anti-HCV acquisition (area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve: 75.1 [95% asymptotic CI: 0.732?0.770; p