Tiribelli C

Language: English
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Page: 69
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Incidence and prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in Chile

Although the HCV infection has been identified as a major health problem in the Western world, no definite data are available on the relevance of this problem below the equator. The paper by Gonzales et al. fills this gap by reporting the prevalence and incidence of HCV infection in Chile. A reasonably large number of subjects were screened in 1993 and 2000 after enrollment in the nationwide study on the prevalence of gallstones. Subjects of two different ethnic groups were selected, one Hispanic (Caucasian) and one Amerindians (Mapuche Indians) living in an isolated island. Unfortunately the sample size differs dramatically being almost 9 times higher for the Hispanics claiming for caution in extrapolating the results on a larger, countrywide basis. Interesting, although not surprisingly, was the observation that the prevalence of HCV in Hispanics was almost identical to what observed in Europe, the country from where the ancestors of those subjects originated.