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Hepatitis C in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urgent Need for Attention

The hepatitis C virus (HCV), which was not recognized as an infectious agent until the 1980s, is responsible for a worldwide epidemic. The World Health Organization estimates global prevalence at 2.8%, with 185 million persons infected. In contrast to hepatitis B, where successful vaccine campaigns...

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Autores principales: Layden, Jennifer E., Phillips, Richard, Opare-Sem, Ohene, Akere, Adegboyega, Salako, Babatunde L., Nelson, Kenrad, Dugas, Lara, Luke, Amy, Tayo, Bamidele O., Cooper, Richard S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4281810/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25734135
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofu065
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author Layden, Jennifer E.
Phillips, Richard
Opare-Sem, Ohene
Akere, Adegboyega
Salako, Babatunde L.
Nelson, Kenrad
Dugas, Lara
Luke, Amy
Tayo, Bamidele O.
Cooper, Richard S.
author_facet Layden, Jennifer E.
Phillips, Richard
Opare-Sem, Ohene
Akere, Adegboyega
Salako, Babatunde L.
Nelson, Kenrad
Dugas, Lara
Luke, Amy
Tayo, Bamidele O.
Cooper, Richard S.
author_sort Layden, Jennifer E.
collection PubMed
description The hepatitis C virus (HCV), which was not recognized as an infectious agent until the 1980s, is responsible for a worldwide epidemic. The World Health Organization estimates global prevalence at 2.8%, with 185 million persons infected. In contrast to hepatitis B, where successful vaccine campaigns have reduced the disease burden, much less progress has been made toward the control of HCV. Phylogenetic studies suggest that HCV originated in Africa and has been endemic in some regions for at least 500–600 years. However, little is known about the epidemiology, transmission, and clinical course of HCV in Africa. With the advent of highly effective anti-HCV agents, there exists great potential to at least curb the global epidemic. For regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, however, this will require a thorough understanding of the regional population-level epidemiology, risk factors, and transmission mechanisms. Only then can effective treatment and prevention strategies be introduced.
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spelling pubmed-42818102015-03-02 Hepatitis C in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urgent Need for Attention Layden, Jennifer E. Phillips, Richard Opare-Sem, Ohene Akere, Adegboyega Salako, Babatunde L. Nelson, Kenrad Dugas, Lara Luke, Amy Tayo, Bamidele O. Cooper, Richard S. Open Forum Infect Dis Perspectives The hepatitis C virus (HCV), which was not recognized as an infectious agent until the 1980s, is responsible for a worldwide epidemic. The World Health Organization estimates global prevalence at 2.8%, with 185 million persons infected. In contrast to hepatitis B, where successful vaccine campaigns have reduced the disease burden, much less progress has been made toward the control of HCV. Phylogenetic studies suggest that HCV originated in Africa and has been endemic in some regions for at least 500–600 years. However, little is known about the epidemiology, transmission, and clinical course of HCV in Africa. With the advent of highly effective anti-HCV agents, there exists great potential to at least curb the global epidemic. For regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, however, this will require a thorough understanding of the regional population-level epidemiology, risk factors, and transmission mechanisms. Only then can effective treatment and prevention strategies be introduced. Oxford University Press 2014-09-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4281810/ /pubmed/25734135 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofu065 Text en © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.
spellingShingle Perspectives
Layden, Jennifer E.
Phillips, Richard
Opare-Sem, Ohene
Akere, Adegboyega
Salako, Babatunde L.
Nelson, Kenrad
Dugas, Lara
Luke, Amy
Tayo, Bamidele O.
Cooper, Richard S.
Hepatitis C in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urgent Need for Attention
title Hepatitis C in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urgent Need for Attention
title_full Hepatitis C in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urgent Need for Attention
title_fullStr Hepatitis C in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urgent Need for Attention
title_full_unstemmed Hepatitis C in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urgent Need for Attention
title_short Hepatitis C in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urgent Need for Attention
title_sort hepatitis c in sub-saharan africa: urgent need for attention
topic Perspectives
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4281810/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25734135
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofu065
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