Key points
Number of reported cases* and estimated infections† of acute viral hepatitis with 95% bootstrap confidence intervals — United States, 2016–2023
Source: CDC, National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.
* Reported confirmed cases. For case definitions, visit .
† The number of estimated viral hepatitis infections was determined by multiplying the number of reported cases that met the classification criteria for a confirmed case by a factor that adjusted for underascertainment and underreporting.
CI: Confidence interval.
Summary
To account for underascertainment and underreporting, a probabilistic model to estimate the true incidence (symptomatic cases and asymptomatic infections) of hepatitis A, acute hepatitis B, and acute hepatitis C from reported (symptomatic) cases has been published previously.
The model1 includes the probabilities of symptoms, referral to care and treatment, and rates of reporting to local and state health departments; of note, the multipliers for acute hepatitis C have been updated since the original publication (unpublished erratum). The multipliers indicate that each reported case of hepatitis A represents 2.0 estimated infections (95% bootstrap confidence interval [CI]: 1.4–2.2), each reported case of acute hepatitis B represents 6.5 estimated infections (95% CI: 3.7–15.9), and each reported case of acute hepatitis C represents 13.9 estimated infections (95% CI: 11.0–47.4). Work is underway to update the multipliers for hepatitis A, acute hepatitis B, and acute hepatitis C using updated literature.
- 1. Klevens RM, Liu S, Roberts H, et al. . Am J Public Health 2014;104:482–487. PMC3953761.