Number of reported cases* of acute hepatitis C virus infection and estimated infections — United States, 2013-2020

Number of reported cases* of acute hepatitis C virus infection and estimated infections† — United States, 2013-2020

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Source: CDC, National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.

* Reported confirmed cases. For the case definition, see Acute Hepatitis C.

† The number of estimated viral hepatitis infections was determined by multiplying the number of reported cases that met the classification criteria for a confirmed case by a factor that adjusted for underascertainment and underreporting. The 95% bootstrap confidence intervals for the estimated number of infections are displayed in the Appendix.

The number of acute hepatitis C cases reported in the United States increased every year during 2013–2020. During 2020, a total of 4,798 acute cases were reported, corresponding to 66,700 estimated infections after adjusting for case underascertainment and underreporting. The number of cases reported during 2020 corresponded to a 16% increase from the 4,136 cases reported during 2019, and a 124% increase from the 2,138 cases reported during 2013.

While the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare access and reduced the number of persons tested for hepatitis C virus infection, the anticipated reductions in the number of reported acute hepatitis C cases was likely offset by a change to the acute hepatitis C case definition in 2020. The new case definition was designed to better characterize cases classified as acute hepatitis C (see Technical Notes/Case Definitions).

This model has not been recalibrated to account for the change in the acute hepatitis C case definition that occurred in 2020, and as such estimated infections of acute hepatitis C generated for 2020 may require revision in the future. Work is underway to update the multipliers for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C using updated literature.

Hepatitis C Figures and Tables

Source:

  1. Klevens RM, Liu, S, Roberts H, et al. Estimating acute viral hepatitis infections from nationally reported cases. Am J Public Health 2014; 104:482. PMC3953761.