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TUESDAY, April 14, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Hepatitis C screening is recommended for all adults and for all pregnant women, except where the prevalence is below 0.1 percent; meanwhile, the annual rate of reported acute hepatitis C cases increased to 1.2 per 100,000 population in 2018, according to recommendations and a report published in the April 10 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Sarah Schillie, M.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues updated and summarized previously published recommendations regarding testing for hepatitis C infection in the United States. The researchers issued two new recommendations for hepatitis C screening, which are applicable in all settings except where the prevalence is less than 0.1 percent: screening at least once in a lifetime for all adults aged \u226518 years and hepatitis C screening for all pregnant women in each pregnancy.<\/p>\n
A. Blythe Ryerson, Ph.D., also from the CDC, and colleagues determined the rate of acute hepatitis C cases reported to the CDC by age group and year during 2009 to 2018. The researchers found that 3,621 cases of acute hepatitis C were reported during 2018, representing an estimated 50,300 cases. There was an increase in the annual rate of reported acute hepatitis C cases per 100,000 population from 0.3 in 2009 to 1.2 in 2018. In 2018, there was a bimodal distribution of newly reported chronic hepatitis C cases, with the highest proportions seen among those aged 20 to 39 and 50 to 69 years.<\/p>\n
“These findings highlight the need for immediate implementation of the new CDC universal hepatitis C screening recommendations for all adults and pregnant women,” Ryerson and colleagues write.<\/p>\n
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