Management of Chronic Hepatitis C among Asian Americans
Abstract
Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) affects 170 million people worldwide and is a risk factor for end-stage liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. The majority of patients with CHC are from Asian descent (94.6 million); however, CHC is an underappreciated disease in Asian patients. The goal of this study is to review the current literature on Asians with CHC. A PubMed search was used to review the pertinent literature for Asians with CHC.
This research has revealed that Hepatitis C virus (HCV) positivity in Asians tends to mirror the prevalence found in the patient’s native country. Asian patients with CHC rarely present with well-known risk factors. The most common genotype in East Asia and South Asia is genotype 1b while genotype 6 is more commonly found in Southeast Asia. Asian patients have superior rates of sustained virologic response (SVR) rates than their non-Asian counterparts regardless of HCV genotype.
As the conclusions of this research, we recommend screening for HCV in Asians if the prevalence of a patient’s native country is equal to or exceeds 2%. Additional studies are needed to explore the ethnic differences in patients with CHC.
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