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Hepatitis C Surveillance among Youth and Young Adults in New York City, 2009–2013

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Abstract

Increases in prescription opioid misuse, injection drug use, and hepatitis C infections have been reported among youth and young adults in the USA, particularly in rural and suburban areas. To better understand these trends in New York City and to characterize demographics and risk factors among a population who, by virtue of their age, are more likely to be recently infected with hepatitis C, we analyzed routine hepatitis C surveillance data from 2009 to 2013 and investigated a sample of persons 30 and younger newly reported with hepatitis C in 2013. Between 2009 and 2013, 4811 persons 30 and younger were newly reported to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene with hepatitis C. There were high rates of hepatitis C among persons 30 and younger in several neighborhoods that did not have high rates of hepatitis C among older people. Among 402 hepatitis C cases 30 and younger investigated in 2013, the largest proportion (44 %) were white, non-Hispanic, and the most commonly reported risk factor for hepatitis C was injection drug use, mostly heroin. Hepatitis C prevention and harm reduction efforts in NYC focused on young people should target these populations, and surveillance for hepatitis C among young people should be a priority in urban as well as rural and suburban settings.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the epidemiologists in the Bureau of Communicable Disease’s General Surveillance Unit and Wei Wei Zhang and Suven Cooper for their work on case investigations, Perminder Khosa for her analytical assistance, the Bureau of Communicable Disease’s data unit for analytical support, Sharon Greene for her guidance on statistical analyses, and Marcelle Layton, James Hadler, and Jay Varma for helpful feedback on earlier versions of this paper.

Financial Support

This project was supported in part by an appointment to the Applied Epidemiology Fellowship Program administered by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Cooperative Agreement Number 5U38HM000414-5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bureau of Communicable Disease, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Long Island City, NY, USA

    Catharine Prussing, Katherine Bornschlegel & Sharon Balter

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  1. Catharine Prussing
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  2. Katherine Bornschlegel
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  3. Sharon Balter
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Correspondence to Catharine Prussing.

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Prussing, C., Bornschlegel, K. & Balter, S. Hepatitis C Surveillance among Youth and Young Adults in New York City, 2009–2013. J Urban Health 92, 387–399 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-014-9920-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-014-9920-5

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