Hepatitis and Asian Americans

In the United States , approximately half of the 1 million persons with chronic Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are Asian/Pacific Islanders, most of whom became infected with HBV before arriving in the United States . The HBV-related death rate among Asian/Pacific Islanders is seven times greater than the rate among Whites (CDC, unpublished data, 2007)¹.

In 2006, Asian Americans were 1.8 times more likely to contract Hepatitis A, as compared to Whites.
Among all ethnic groups in 2006, Asian/Pacific Islanders had the second highest incidence of Hepatitis A.
In 2002, Asian/Pacific Islander children were 3.4 times more likely than White children to be diagnosed with acute Hepatitis B virus.
In 2006, Asian Americans were 30% less likely to develop Hepatitis C, as compared to the White population.
Data on chronic Hepatitis B and chronic Hepatitis C virus infection (past or present) are not included by the CDC in the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System reports, because they are undergoing data quality review. Neither is this data reported in the CDC Healthy People 2010 database.

VIRAL HEPATITIS

**Acute Viral Hepatitis Incidence (Cases per 100,000 population), 2006**
	Asian	White	Asian / White Ratio
Hepatitis A	1.37	0.78	1.8
Hepatitis B	1.17	0.99	1.2
Hepatitis C	0.06	0.20	0.3

Source: CDC, 2008. Summary of Notifiable Diseases - United States , 2006. MMWR 2007; v. 55, no. 53. Table 5.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5553.pdf [PDF, 1.42MB]

HEPATITIS A

**Hepatitis A, Acute (Cases per 100,000 population), 2006**
Asian	White	Asian / White Ratio
1.37	0.78	1.8

Source: CDC, 2008. Summary of Notifiable Diseases - United States , 2006. MMWR 2007; v. 55, no. 53. Table 5.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5553.pdf [PDF, 1.42MB]

HEPATITIS B

At a glance – Adults (Hepatitis B):

**Acute Hepatitis B in adults, aged 19-24 years, and high risk groups (Cases per 100,000 population), 2005**
Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Healthy People 2010 Goal	Asian/Pacific Islander /Non- Hispanic White Ratio
3.5	2.8	1.8	1.3

Source: CDC 2007. Healthy People 2010 Database. Table 14-03a.
http://wonder.cdc.gov/scripts/data2010

**Acute Hepatitis B in adults, aged 25-39 years, and high risk groups (Cases per 100,000 population), 2005**
Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Healthy People 2010 Goal	Asian/Pacific Islander /Non- Hispanic White Ratio
5.9	6.6	5.2	0.9

Source: CDC 2007. Healthy People 2010 Database. Table 14-03b.
http://wonder.cdc.gov/scripts/data2010

**Acute Hepatitis B in adults, aged 40 years and older, and high risk groups (Cases per 100,000 population), 2005**
Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Healthy People 2010 Goal	Asian/Pacific Islander /Non- Hispanic White Ratio
3.5	2.9	3.7	1.2

Source: CDC 2007. Healthy People 2010 Database. Table 14-03c.
http://wonder.cdc.gov/scripts/data2010

**Hepatitis B, Acute (Cases per 100,000 population), 2006**
Asian	White	Asian / White Ratio
1.17	0.99	1.2

Source: CDC, 2008. Summary of Notifiable Diseases - United States , 2006. MMWR 2007; v. 55, no. 53. Table 5.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5553.pdf [PDF, 1.42MB]

At a glance – Immunization of Adolescents, aged 13 to 15 years old (Hepatitis B):

**Percentage of adolescents aged 13 to 15 years who received 3 or more doses of the hepatitis B vaccination, 2003**
Asian Only	Non-Hispanic White	Healthy People 2010 Goal	Asian /Non- Hispanic White Ratio
89%	76%	90%	1.2

Source: CDC 2007. Healthy People 2010 Database. Table 14-27a.
http://wonder.cdc.gov/scripts/data2010

At a glance – Immunization of Children aged 19 to 35 months (Hepatitis B):

**Percentage of children aged 19 to 35 months who received the universally recommended vaccination – 3 doses hepatitis B (hep B) vaccine , 2005**
Asian Only	Non-Hispanic White	Healthy People 2010 Goal	Asian/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
94%	93%	90%	1.0

Source: CDC 2007. Healthy People 2010 Database. Table 14-22c.
http://wonder.cdc.gov/scripts/data2010

At a glance – Children (Hepatitis B):

**Rate of acute hepatitis B in persons aged 19 years and under, 2002**
Asian/Pacific Islander	White	Asian/Pacific Islander / White Ratio
0.55	0.16	3.4

Source: CDC, 2004. Acute Hepatitis B Among Children and Adolescents --- United States , 1990--2002. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5343a4.htm

HEPATITIS C

**Hepatitis C, Acute (Cases per 100,000 population), 2006**
Asian	White	Asian / White Ratio
0.06	0.20	0.3

Source: CDC, 2008. Summary of Notifiable Diseases - United States , 2006. MMWR 2007; v. 55, no. 53. Table 5.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5553.pdf [PDF, 1.42MB]

¹CDC, 2007. Hepatitis Awareness Month - May 2007. MMWR v. 56, no. 18, page 1. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5618.pdf [PDF, 551KB]

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Content Last Modified: 5/5/2008 2:34:00 PM