Cent Eur J Public Health 2018, 26(2):83-86 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a4502

Hepatitis C testing among adults born between 1945 and 1965 in Turkey: a multicentre study

Mustafa Altındis1, Tayfur Demiray1, Mehmet Köroğlu1, Ali Rıza Atasoy1, Recep Keºli2, Selma Tosun3, Mehmet Özdemir4, Alper Aksözek5, Gülfem Ece6, Yeliz Çetinkol7, Selma Altındis8, Hüseyin Güdücüoğlu9
1 Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey
2 Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Medicine, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyon, Turkey
3 Izmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey
4 Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Medicine, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey
5 Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Medicine, Mugla University, Mugla, Turkey
6 Medical Microbiology Laboratory, Medical Park Hospital, Izmir, Turkey
7 Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Medicine, Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey
8 Department of Healthcare Management, School of Management, Sakarya University, Sakarya Turkey
9 Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Medicine, Yuzuncu Yil University, Van, Turkey

Objective: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health problem and affects large populations all over the world. Serum anti-HCV level is a valuable marker to determine HCV infection. Anti-HCV testing has been recommended for high-risk population. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention in the United States proposed a new high-risk population group - adults born between 1945-1965. Under this perspective, we designed a multicentre retrospective study to determine the seropositivity of anti-HCV among adults born between 1945 and 1965 and adults born after 1965 in Turkey. With the data collected, we aimed to determine whether there was a need for anti-HCV testing especially in people born between 1945 and 1965.

Methods: We requested data from ten different medical centres in ten different provinces. Each medical centre collected the anti-HCV test results of adult patients for five-year period between 2009 and 2014 from hospital records.

Results: A total of 974,449 anti-HCV test results were included in this study. When the seropositivity rates in the two groups of adults were compared, anti-HCV seropositivity rates were higher in nine medical centres out of ten. Anti-HCV seropositivity in adults born between 1945-1965 was significantly higher than in adults born after 1965 (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: We determined that the anti-HCV seropositivity rate is significantly higher in adults born between 1945-1965 compared to the younger adults as indicated in the literature. According to data from this study together with the WHO and CDC suggestions, we believe that it is appropriate to offer anti-HCV serology testing for people over 50 years of age since the anti- HCV seroprevalence in this age group is relatively high.

Keywords: anti-HCV, HCV seropositivity, HCV age group, elder population

Received: July 20, 2015; Revised: April 20, 2017; Accepted: April 20, 2017; Published: June 30, 2018  Show citation

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Altındis M, Demiray T, Köroğlu M, Atasoy AR, Keºli R, Tosun S, et al.. Hepatitis C testing among adults born between 1945 and 1965 in Turkey: a multicentre study. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2018;26(2):83-86. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a4502. PubMed PMID: 30102494.
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