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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 28, 2016; 22(36): 8094-8102
Published online Sep 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i36.8094
Epidemiology of hepatitis C in Greece
Christos Triantos, Christos Konstantakis, Paraskeui Tselekouni, Maria Kalafateli, Ioanna Aggeletopoulou, Spilios Manolakopoulos
Christos Triantos, Christos Konstantakis, Paraskeui Tselekouni, Maria Kalafateli, Ioanna Aggeletopoulou, Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece
Spilios Manolakopoulos, 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Hippokration General Hospital of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Author contributions: Triantos C interpretation of the data, drafting the manuscript, revision of manuscript for important intellectual content; Konstantakis C drafting the manuscript; Tselekouni P literature data collection; Kalafateli M literature data collection; Aggeletopoulou I literature data collection; Manolakopoulos S interpretation of the data, drafting the manuscript, revision of manuscript for important intellectual content.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Triantos Christos has received fees for serving as a speaker for Gilead Sciences and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and as an advisory board member for Gilead Sciences and for MSD.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Christos Triantos, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital of Patras, D. Stamatopoulou 4, 26504 Patras, Greece. chtriantos@hotmail.com
Telephone: +30-697-2894651 Fax: +30-261-0625382
Received: April 8, 2016
Peer-review started: April 9, 2016
First decision: June 20, 2016
Revised: July 7, 2016
Accepted: August 10, 2016
Article in press: August 10, 2016
Published online: September 28, 2016
Processing time: 170 Days and 15.3 Hours
Abstract

Hepatitis C is a global health issue and constitutes a major cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. In this article, a comprehensive literature search was conducted for the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in Greece, since data on the HCV prevalence, viremia and genotypes are important for developing strategies to manage or eliminate HCV infection. In addition, the pattern of HCV infection was analyzed according to the geographic region and the risk factors. These differences reflect not only distinct epidemiological characteristics among populations, but also differences on the strategy of data acquisition and quantification. Although there are not enough data, the estimation of the current prevalence of Hepatitis C in Greece ranges from 0.5% to 2%. The most important risk factors for HCV infection include blood product transfusion, intravenous drug use, chronic hemodialysis, organ transplantation, occupational exposure, sexual transmission, and vertical transmission. Because of lack of vaccine or effective post-exposure prophylaxis for HCV, the main focus of prevention is to recognize and control these risk factors. HCV infection in Greece is closely associated with the development of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and primary hepatocellular carcinoma. As far as the genotype distribution is concerned genotype 1 estimated to be 45%-47% and it constitutes the prevalent genotype in Greece, followed by genotype 3.

Keywords: Prevalence; Hepatitis C virus infection; Hepatitis C; Greece; Epidemiology

Core tip: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major health issue, it constitutes one of the most often causes of liver disease not only in Greece but also worldwide and is a potential cause of morbidity and mortality in the future. Epidemiological studies in Greece suggest that prevalence of HCV infection varies from 0.5% to 2%. The annual average incidence of HCV infection is estimated at 0.62 in 100000 people without significant difference between the two genders. These data are particularly important because they contribute to a better apprehension of the HCV infection in Greece since health authorities are able to create a more efficient health policy in a country which is hard affected from the economic crisis.