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Hepatitis C Surveillance in South Australia

Hepatitis C Medical Notification 01/07/07 - 30/09/07

In the third quarter of 2007, 194 medical notifications of hepatitis C infection were received, including 174 new diagnoses of infection.  The notifications recorded 126 (65%) cases in males and 68 (35%) in females. The cumulative total in 2007 (458) is similar to the same period in 2006 (449) (Table 2.1).   .

Medical notification reported 20 cases with a previous positive test, whilst 101 individuals had not been tested before for hepatitis C infection. In 33 cases, the testing history was unknown.  Of 22 (13%) individuals with a previous negative test, nine were last tested within the past year, and three were tested 12-24 months earlier.

Among 174 reports of new diagnoses of hepatitis C infection (114 males and 60 females), past or present injecting drug use was recorded as a likely transmission route for hepatitis C virus in 116 (53%) instances (Table 2.1).  

At diagnosis, 79% of cases were aged between 20 and 49 years (Table 2.2).    

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.

Ten incident cases were identified during the quarter, (5 male, 5 female).  Nine cases had negative serology in the preceding 12 months.  There were no reported cases of clinical hepatitis at diagnosis.

In nine cases, the likely mode of transmission for hepatitis C virus was injecting drug use (Table 2.3).  At diagnosis, the age-range of incident cases was 17 to 47 years; mean 29.72 years (Table 2.4).    The majority of incident cases were Caucasian  (Table 2.5).

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

Table 2.1  Hepatitis C infection, 01/07/07 - 30/09/07 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, 01/07/07 - 30/09/07 and year to date. 
                 Age group by sex.

Table 2.3  Newly acquired hepatitis C infections (incident cases¹), 
                01/07/07 - 30/09/07 and year to date. Exposure category by sex.

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