Number of reported cases* and estimated infections of acute hepatitis B — United States, 2015–2022

Number of reported cases* and estimated infections of acute hepatitis B — United States, 2015–2022
Source: CDC, National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.
* Reported confirmed cases. For the case definition, see Acute Hepatitis B.
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. The 95% bootstrap confidence intervals for the estimated number of infections are displayed in the Appendix.

During 2022, the number of reported cases of acute hepatitis B was 2,126, which corresponds to 13,800 estimated infections after adjusting for case underascertainment and underreporting.1 After a decade of stable rates, the rate of acute hepatitis B decreased in 2020 and remained stable in 2021 and 2022. Although changes in health care-seeking behavior and testing during the COVID-19 pandemic could have affected recent trends, the stability of the rate through 2022 suggests some reduction in hepatitis B virus (HBV) transmission, which may be unrelated to disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source:

  1. Klevens RM, Liu S, Roberts H, et al. Estimating acute viral hepatitis infections from nationally reported cases. Am J Public Health 2014;104:482. PMC3953761.
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