Public health surveillance of hepatitis C: can it identify incident cases?
Aust N Z J Public Health
; 24(2): 198-200, 2000 Apr.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-10790941
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To evaluate a follow-up system to identify incident cases among individuals notified with the hepatitis C virus (HCV).METHOD:
A cross-sectional survey of medical practitioners treating individuals notified to the NSW Health Department as having HCV between August 1996 and August 1997 was conducted.RESULTS:
Five hundred and fifty-four new notifications were received during the study period (70.7 per 100,000 people). Ninety-six per cent of notifications were followed up with 54 individuals (9.7%) identified as incident cases. Incident cases were significantly younger than prevalent cases (median age 30 vs. 39, p < 0.001) with drug and alcohol notifications being more likely to be incident cases.CONCLUSION:
HCV transmission is continuing at relatively high levels with incident cases being significantly younger than prevalent cases. IMPLICATIONS An efficient notification follow-up strategy that identifies incident cases could be routinely used to assess the effectiveness of population-based initiatives aimed at reducing HCV transmission.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Vigilância da População
/
Hepatite C
/
Notificação de Doenças
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2000
Tipo de documento:
Article