Newly Identified Confirmed Chronic Hepatitis C Age 15-34 Year 2007-2016 Health

This data set provides an estimate of the number of people aged 15-34 years with newly identified confirmed chronic (or past/present) hepatitis C infection, by county and by year. The dataset is limited to persons aged 15 to 34 because hepatitis C infection is usually asymptomatic for decades after infection occurs. Cases are usually identified because they have finally become symptomatic, or they were screened. Until very recently, screening for hepatitis C was not routinely performed. This makes it very challenging to identify persons with recent infection. Limiting the age of newly identified patients to 15-34 years makes it more likely that the cases included in the dashboard were infected fairly recently. It is not meant to imply that the opioid crisis’ effect on hepatitis C transmission is limited to younger people. The process by which case counts are determined is as follows: Case reports, which include lab test results and address data, are sent to Pennsylvania’s electronic disease surveillance system (PA-NEDSS). Confirmation status is determined by public health investigators who evaluate test results against the CDC case definition for hepatitis C in place for the year in which the patient was first reported (https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nndss/conditions/hepatitis-c-chronic/). Reportable disease data, including hepatitis C, is extracted from PA-NEDSS, combined with similar data sent by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH, which uses a separate surveillance system), and sent to CDC. Case data sent to CDC (from PA-NEDSS and PDPH combined) are used to create a statewide reportable disease dataset. This statewide file was used to generate the dashboard dataset. Note that the term that CDC has used to denote persons with hepatitis C infection that is not known to be acute has switched back and forth between “Hepatitis C, past or present” and “Hepatitis C, chronic” over the past several years. The CDC case definition for hepatitis C, chronic (or past or present) changed in 2005, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2016. Persons reported as confirmed in one year may not have been considered confirmed in another year. For example, patients with a positive radioimmunoblot assay (RIBA) or elevated enzyme immunoassay (EIA) signal-to-cutoff level were counted as confirmed in 2012, but not counted as confirmed in 2016. Data sent to CDC’s National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System use a measure for aggregating cases by year called the MMWR year. The MMWR, or the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, is an official publication by CDC and the means by which CDC has historically presented aggregated case count data. Since data in the MMWR are presented by week, the MMWR year always starts on the Sunday closest to Jan 1 and ends on the Saturday closest to Dec 31. The most recent year for which case counts are finalized is 2016. Annual case counts are finalized in May of the following year. The patient zip code, as submitted to PA-NEDSS, is used to determine the case’s county of residence at the time of initial case report. In some instances, the patient zip code is unavailable. In those circumstances, the zip code of the provider that ordered the lab test is used as a proxy for patient zip code. Users should note that the state prison system routinely screens all incoming inmates for hepatitis C. If these inmates are determined to be confirmed cases, they are assigned to the county in which they were incarcerated when their confirmed hepatitis C was first identified. Hepatitis C case counts in counties with state prisons should be interpreted cautiously in light of this enhanced screening activity.