EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE PREVALENCE AND LETHALITY OF HEPATITIS C CASES IN BRAZIL: 2010-2019

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus is the leading cause of liver-related death, the infection progresses to a state of chronicity and can cause cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and extra-hepatic lesions. This study aimed to describe lethality, prevalence of hepatitis C in the period between 2010 and 2019 and also to compare the numbers of infected by sex. Data sources from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN) and the Department of Chronic Diseases and Sexually Transmitted Infections (DCCI) were used, obtained from the Department of the Unified Health System (DATASUS). In the studied interval, 193,113 cases of hepatitis C were computed, using anti-HCV reagent or/and HCV-RNA reagent diagnostic methods. The number of deaths was 17,456 and its fatality rate for that period was 10.25%. And there were more men infected than women. The study showed that the same way that happens in England, occurs in Brazil, the mortality numbers are falling, but not significantly and that the male sex has higher numbers of infected than the female sex. Brazilian public health incorporated the treatment of direct acting antiviral pains in 2015 and thus the number of deaths began to fall in Brazil in 2017. However, the fatality rate remains high, due to virus mutations and reinfection. Therefore, in Brazil the number of infected people is still high, and the lethality rate remains high, even with a drop in the number of deaths.