Hepatitis C (new cases) Published: 06.10.05 Updated: 06.10.2005
11:33:26 Hans Blystad, Lars Blad, Johan Giesecke, Swedish
Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Sweden, the Steering
Group of the project Building a Network for Infections Disease
Surveillance in the Baltic Sea Region Hepatitis C is a chronic
disease that is rarely symptomatic in the acute stage. It is
therefore a disease that is difficult to monitor, particularly
its incidence. Hepatitis C surveillance and reporting varies
within the region. Most countries only report acute cases, while
Sweden and Iceland reports all anti-HCV positive cases without
differentiating between acute or chronic carriers. Finland
reports both acute cases and carriers. As most acute cases of
hepatitis C are asymptomatic, the reported incidence of acute
hepatitis C probably does not reflect the true incidence of the
disease. Ever since hepatitis C serology was introduced in the
late 1980s, an increasing number of anti-HCV positive cases have
been diagnosed all over t