U.S. Hepatitis Rates Fall to New Lows

Widespread vaccination is helping reduce hepatitis A, B, experts say.

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Thursday, March 15, 2007; 12:00 AM

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THURSDAY, March 15 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. rates of infection with hepatitis A, B and C viruses have fallen to historic lows, reducing the threat of liver disease, according to a new federal report.

Infection with these three most common forms of acute viral hepatitis have dropped dramatically between 1995 and 2005, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday. Moreover, the rates of hepatitis A and B are now at their lowest levels since the federal government began collecting data more than 40 years ago, according to the CDC report, Surveillance for Acute Viral Hepatitis -- United States, 2005.

The rates of all three types of hepatitis have been dropping dramatically since the mid 1990s, noted the report's lead author, Annemarie Wasley, a CDC epidemiologist in the Division of Viral Hepatitis.

"Since 1995, there has been an 88 percent decline in hepatitis A and a 79 percent decline in hepatitis B. For hepatitis C, since the early 1990s, it's been a 90 percent decline," she said.

The statistics were published in this week's issue of the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Hepatitis A can affect anyone and can be contracted through contaminated water, food or person-to-person contact. Hepatitis B can be contracted through sexual contact and is a serious disease that attacks the liver, resulting in lifelong infection, cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure, and death. Hepatitis C can also lead to serious liver disease. It is spread by contact with the blood of an infected person.

"A lot of the decline in hepatitis A and B is due to the national vaccination strategy since the 1990s," Wasley said.

The greatest decline in hepatitis A was seen among children in those 17 states where vaccination of children has been recommended since 1999. For hepatitis B, the greatest decline was among children and teens age 15 and younger, likely due to a high vaccination rate in this age group, according to the report.

"We think a lot of the decline in cases of hepatitis C is the result of changing behaviors among intravenous drug users. They are one of the most important risk groups for hepatitis C," Wasley said. "In addition, we have better screening of blood for hepatitis C."