Background
Viral hepatitis affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is a leading cause of liver cancer and premature death. Liver cancer is the sixth most common cause of cancer death in Australia. Little is known about the burden of disease attributable to hepatitis B and C in Victoria.
Aim
To explore morbidity/mortality associated with hepatitis B (HBV) and/or C virus (HCV) infection in Victoria using data linkage.
Methods
All HBV and HCV notifications in Victoria (1991-2016) were linked with liver cancer records in the Victorian Cancer Registry (1991-2016), deaths in the National Death Index (1991-August 2017), and Emergency Department presentations/hospitalisations recorded by the Victorian Department of Health (1999-2016 and 1993-2016, respectively), and the number of notified individuals experiencing each of these adverse outcomes was assessed.
Results
Of the 115,709 individuals with notified viral hepatitis there were 36.3% with HBV, 60.8% with HCV and 2.9% with both HBV/HCV infections. At first notification, the majority of individuals resided in metropolitan Melbourne (82.7%), were infected with HCV (60.8%) and were male (59.8%). Of all individuals with notified viral hepatitis 2% developed liver cancer and 13.6% were deceased.
Conclusion
This study is the first to ascertain the burden of adverse outcomes of viral hepatitis in Victoria, and demonstrates the substantial number of liver cancer cases and deaths in people affected. The planned examination of clinical and population health strategies related to chronic viral hepatitis and liver cancer prevention and the subsequent findings of this study will inform future targeted interventions.