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Hepatitis C Surveillance in South Australia

Hepatitis C Medical Notification 01/04/06 - 30/06/06

In the second quarter of 2006, 145 medical notifications of hepatitis C infection were received for 93 (64%) males and 52 (36%) females; the notifications included 122 reports of newly diagnosed hepatitis C infection (Table 2.1).  

Medical notification reported 53 cases as having no previous hepatitis C test, while 23 reported earlier positive tests. Thirty two individuals reported a previous negative test; in eight cases within the last 12 months, and in 24 cases more than 12 months earlier. In a further 37 cases the testing history was unknown. Among 122 cases with newly diagnosed infections, past or present injecting drug use (IDU) was reported as a likely transmission route for hepatitis C virus in 82 (66%) instances (Table 2.1).

The majority of cases were aged between 30 and 49 years at diagnosis (58%); mean age 39 years, range 15-91 years (Table 2.2).  Among eight cases aged less than twenty years at diagnosis (3 males, 5 females), six had a history of injecting drug use.  

Newly acquired infections - Incident Cases

Incident cases are infections acquired in the last 12 months, and are identified by recent seroconversion for hepatitis C antibodies or a positive test accompanied by acute clinical illness not ascribed to other causes.

In contrast to the previous quarter, few incident cases were aged 20-29 years; the age range at diagnosis was 16 to 41 years, with a mean of 29 years (Table 2.4). The majority of incident cases were Caucasian (Table 2.5).  

Collated laboratory data for hepatitis C antibody tests are shown in Table 2.6. 

Table 2.1  Hepatitis C infection, 01/04/06 - 30/06/06 and year to date. 
                Exposure category by sex.

^{1  Injecting drug use (IDU), includes IDU in combination with categories other than tattoos (4 cases)}

^{2  Blood transfusion pre-1990}

^{3  Includes exposure to blood through injury, household & perinatal transmission, acupuncture & 
    body piercing}

^{4  Birth, residence/medical treatment in a high prevalence country overseas.}

Table 2.2  Hepatitis C infection, 01/04/06 - 30/06/06 and year to date. 
                 Age group by sex.

Table 2.3  Newly acquired hepatitis C infections (incident cases¹), 
                01/04/06 - 30/06/06 and year to date. Exposure category by sex.

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