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Hepatitis C Surveillance in South Australia

Hepatitis C Medical Notification 01/04/07 - 30/06/07

In the second quarter of 2007, 167 medical notifications of hepatitis C infection were received for 104 (62%) males and 63 (38%) females; the notifications included 136 reports of newly diagnosed hepatitis C infection (Table 2.1).  

Medical notification reported 85 cases as having no previous hepatitis C test, 29 individuals reported a previous negative test; in 11 cases within the last 12 months and in 18 cases more than 12 months earlier. In a further 14 cases the testing history was unknown.  Of the 31 individuals who reported a previous positive test 29 cases were diagnosed interstate and 2 cases reported positive test results in South Australia (before 1995).

Among the136 newly diagnosed infections, past or present injecting drug use was reported as a transmission route in 89 (66%) cases, among these 13 individuals also recorded tattoos (Table 2.1).

The majority of cases were aged between 30 and 49 years at diagnosis (57%); mean age 42 years, range 4 - 85 years (Table 2.2).  Among six cases aged less than twenty years at diagnosis (2 males, 4 females), five 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.

Of 14 incident cases identified during the quarter, 11 had negative serology in the preceding 12 months, while two individuals either presented with acute clinical hepatitis or risk exposure within the preceding 12 months.

The incident cases comprised 6 males and 8 females the probable mode of transmission was injecting drug use in 13 of the 14 cases (Table 2.3).

The age range at diagnosis for incident cases was 4 to 56 years, with a mean of 29 years.

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

Table 2.1  Hepatitis C infection, 01/04/07 - 30/06/07 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, 01/04/07 - 30/06/07 and year to date. 
                 Age group by sex.

Table 2.3  Newly acquired hepatitis C infections (incident cases¹), 
                01/04/07 - 30/06/07 and year to date. Exposure category by sex.

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