Theme: Epidemiology & Public Health Research Year: 2024
Background: Viral hepatitis represents a serious public health problem worldwide, including the use of narcotic substances. It is necessary to carry out analyzes that demonstrate the Brazilian scenario and that can contribute to the planning of public policy actions.
Methods: To evaluate the database of the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN) to present the Brazilian epidemiological scenario of hepatitis C cases with probable/mechanism source of infection and drug use.
Results: Between 2000 and 2022, 750,651 cases of viral hepatitis were diagnosed in Sinan in Brazil. Of these, 298,738 (39.8%) were hepatitis C. It was observed that 123,188 cases with probable source of known infection, drug use corresponded to 27.0% of occurrences, followed by blood transfusion (22.3%) and sexual intercourse (22.0%). In 2022, cases of sexually transmitted infections were 51.6% higher than those related to drug use and 68.5% higher than those of transfusions. Of the reported cases, 58.8% had no source of infection and the percentage of unknown cases reached 73.9% of hepatitis C cases in 2022.
Conclusion: Given the above, it is concluded the need to qualify the Epidemiological Surveillance in the territory in order to reduce the percentage of reported cases without probable source of infection and ignored. Another point is the need for detailed analysis on the types of drug use considered probable source of infection so that it can develop strategies that meet the need of this population.