A new study published in Annals of Internal Medicine shows that less than 1% of acute cases of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection over the course of a decade in Massachusetts were reported to the CDC.
Massachusetts General Hospital and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health conducted the study. Researchers used data from 183 patients with acute HCV at either Massachusetts General Hospital or Lemuel Shattuck Hospital that were enrolled in the “Boston Acute HCV Study: Transmission, Immunity and Outcomes Network” between 2001 and 2011. The researchers also examined data from the Massachusetts Virtual Epidemiologic Network, a surveillance and case management system that allows state and public health care professionals to share data over the Internet.