Newly Identified Confirmed Chronic Hepatitis C Age 15-34 Year 2007-2016

This map provides an estimate of the number of people aged 15-34 years with newly identified confirmed chronic (or past/present) hepatitis C infection, by county and by year.
The underlying data is limited to persons aged 15 to 34 because hepatitis C infection is usually asymptomatic for decades after infection occurs. Cases are usually identified because they have finally become symptomatic, or they were screened. Until very recently, screening for hepatitis C was not routinely performed. This makes it very challenging to identify persons with recent infection. Limiting the age of newly identified patients to 15-34 years makes it more likely that the cases included in the dashboard were infected fairly recently. It is not meant to imply that the opioid crisis’ effect on hepatitis C transmission is limited to younger people.
The patient zip code, as submitted to PA-NEDSS, is used to determine the case’s county of residence at the time of initial case report. In some instances, the patient zip code is unavailable. In those circumstances, the zip code of the provider that ordered the lab test is used as a proxy for patient zip code.