摘要：The degree to which case surveillance captures persons ever infected with HCV is unknown. We determined the discrepancy between HCV seroprevalence, estimated from national survey data, among adults in New York State in 2008 (n = 286 262, or 1.95%) and the number of infected persons reported to the state’s surveillance hepatitis registries (n = 144 015). Findings suggest the need to strengthen the existing surveillance system. Chronic HCV infection is the most common chronic blood-borne infection in the United States. 1–6 Without identification and treatment, HCV infection can lead to liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, liver failure, and death. 1,7,8 HCV surveillance systems within states and localities have been developed, but the degree to which these systems identify those who have been infected with HCV, that is, those who are HCV antibody positive, is unknown. A method to estimate HCV antibody prevalence nationally is provided by the ongoing National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which conducts serosurveys on a representative sample of noninstitutionalized, civilian US residents. 5,9 However, no similar ongoing survey exists at any state or local level. 10 Therefore, we developed a method to estimate HCV case prevalence at the state level and then determined the discrepancy between the estimated number of cases for New York State and the number reported to the state surveillance systems. We chose to estimate prevalence for 2008 because of data availability and compared this with surveillance data from 2001 to 2009, the years for which complete surveillance data were available.
