Prevalence, Awareness, and Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in South Korea: Evidence from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the Korean general population and the awareness and treatment status of HCV infection among anti-HCV-positive persons. METHODS: We used data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHNES) collected between 2012 and 2016. All the participants aged ≥10 years in the KNHNES were tested for the anti-HCV antibody. Anti-HCV-positive persons were tested for HCV RNA and assessed for their awareness and treatment experience regarding HCV infection. RESULTS: The prevalence of anti-HCV was 0.66% (95% confidence interval, 0.56% to 0.78%) among Koreans aged ≥10 years, representing an estimated 278,819 anti-HCV-positive persons, and 0.71% (95% confidence interval, 0.60% to 0.84%) among Koreans aged ≥20 years. The prevalence of anti-HCV increased with age and had significant geographic variation. The positive rate of HCV RNA in anti-HCV-positive persons was 33.5% and increased with age. The rate of HCV infection awareness was 15.2% (35/250) among anti-HCV-positive persons and 30.5% (18/59) among HCV RNA-positive persons. Among the participants, 13.5% of HCV RNA-positive persons had been treated for HCV infection. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of anti-HCV among Koreans aged ≥20 years was 0.71%; one-third of anti-HCV-positive persons tested HCV RNA-positive. The awareness and treatment rates of HCV infection were low among HCV-infected persons. Therefore, active measures should be taken to diagnose and treat persons unaware of HCV infection.