Understanding the Magnitude of the Viral Hepatitis Epidemics in the United States

Understanding the Magnitude of the Viral Hepatitis Epidemics in the United States

April 8, 2016 • By Richard Wolitski, Ph.D., Acting Director, Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

There May Be More People Living with Viral Hepatitis in the U.S. than Live in Your State

Let’s start with the lowest estimate from the CDC website (3.4 million people). Twenty-one states and DC all have total populations that are smaller than the estimated number of people living with HCV or HBV in the United States.

If we use the highest estimate from the CDC (5.3 million people), 28 states, DC, and Puerto Rico, each have populations that are smaller than the number of people living with viral hepatitis. That’s more than half of the states in the entire country. These states can be found all across the United States.

In fact, if you add up the populations of DC and the 6 least populous states (Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming), the total (5,184,139) is less than the CDC’s highest estimate of the number of people living with viral hepatitis in the United States.

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