The prevalence of intrinsic host risk factors associated with progressive disease in patients with chronic hepatitis C viral infections.

The prevalences of three risk factors that have been identified as important predictors of more progressive forms of chronic hepatitis C viral (HCV) infections (male gender, transfusion recipients and age greater than 50 years at the onset of infection) were documented by a retrospective chart review of 337 HCV-infected patients attending an urban, hospital-based, viral hepatitis clinic. One hundred and ninety-five patients (58%) were male. One hundred and eighteen (35%) had received blood or blood product transfusions in the past, 33% of whom also gave a history of intravenous drug use. Approximately 5% of patients were over the age of 50 years at the estimated time of infection. Twenty percent of patients had two and 4% had all three risk factors. In conclusion, intrinsic host risk factors associated with progressive HCV infection were common in this patient population. If confirmed in other centres, these results suggest that the medical and financial demand on the health care system is likely to be appreciable unless effective and safe therapies for HCV are identified and implemented in the near future.