Hepatitis B and C Infections in Hamadan Province during 2004-2009

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are major global public health problems. This study was conducted to investigate the incidence rate of these infections over six successive years in Hamadan Province, the west of Iran. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted on the database of hepatitis registry. In this study, 1257 subjects infected by HBV and 705 subjects infected by HCV were detected and enrolled. HBV infection was detected by presence of HBsAg and HCV infection by presence of Anti-HCV. In order to estimate province-based age-specific incidence rates of HBV and HCV infections, we used the same age-specific population as the denominator. Results: The incidence rate pre 100,000 population from 2004 to 2009 for HBV infection was 19.60, 12.29, 12.31, 11.13, 9.46, 7.70 (P<0.001) and for HCV infection was 6.73, 7.42, 7.57, 8.45, 5.30, 5.17 respectively (P<0.001). The incidence rate of HBV infection decreased continuously over time, while the incidence rate of HCV infection fluctuated and even increased from 2004 to 2007 then decreased. The rate ratio of trend for HBV infection across successive years was 0.85 95% CI: 0.82, 0.88] and that of HCV infection was 0.94 95% CI: 0.90, 0.99]. Conclusions: The decreasing trend in the incidence rate of HBV infection in current years may be the result of vast national immunization of newborn and adolescents against hepatitis B infection. On the other hand, fluctuating inci-dence rate of HCV infection with a temporarily increasing growth is critical and should be the focus of the health policymakers' special attention.