Hepatitis and Asian Americans

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In the United States, one study reports that approximately half of the 1 million persons with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are Asian/Pacific Islanders, most of whom became infected with HBV before arriving in the United States.¹

Asian Americans were twice as likely to develop chronic hepatitis B, as compared to whites, from 2013-2016.
2018 surveillance shows that Asian Americans were almost eight times more likely to die from hepatitis B than non-Hispanic whites.

VIRAL HEPATITIS

Death Rates for Viral Hepatitis, 2017 (all types)
	*Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Pacific Islander / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
Male	1.8	1.6	1.1
Female	0.9	0.9	1.0
Total	1.3	1.2	1.1

Source: CDC 2019. Deaths: Final Data for 2017. National vital statistics reports; vol. 68, no. 9. Table 10.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf [PDF | 1.76MB]

HEPATITIS A

Hepatitis A, Acute (Cases per 100,000 population), 2018
Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Pacific Islander / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
0.5	4.3	0.1

CDC 2020. Viral Hepatitis Surveillance — United States, 2018. Table 1.2.
https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/statistics/2018surveillance/pdfs/2018HepSurveillanceRpt.pdf [PDF | 7.76MB]

HEPATITIS B

Hepatitis B, Acute (Cases per 100,000 population), 2018
Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Pacific Islander / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
0.3	1.0	0.3

CDC 2020. Viral Hepatitis Surveillance — United States, 2018. Table 2.2.
https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/statistics/2018surveillance/pdfs/2018HepSurveillanceRpt.pdf [PDF | 7.76MB]

HEPATITIS B - CHRONIC

Adults (Chronic Hepatitis B)

Percentage of reported cases of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, 2013-2016
Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Pacific Islander / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
30.1	13.5	2.2

Source: CDC 2018. Viral Hepatitis Surveillance – United States, 2016. Table 3.4.
http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/Statistics/2016Surveillance/index.htm

Death Rate (Hepatitis B)

Rate per 100,000 of Hepatitis-B-Related Deaths, 2018
Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Pacific Islander / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
2.1	0.27	7.8

CDC 2020. Viral Hepatitis Surveillance — United States, 2018. Table 2.7.
https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/statistics/2018surveillance/pdfs/2018HepSurveillanceRpt.pdf [PDF | 7.76MB]

Immunization of Adults (Hepatitis B)

Percentage of adults ages 19-49 years, high risk groups, who ever received 3 or more doses of the hepatitis B vaccination, 2017
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
39.7	36.6	1.1

Source: CDC 2018. Vaccination Coverage among Adults in the United States, National Health Interview Survey, 2017. Box 2, Table 2.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/coverage/adultvaxview/pubs-resources/NHIS-2017.html

Immunization of Adolescents (Hepatitis B)

Percentage of adolescents aged 13 to 17 years who received 2 doses of measles, mumps, rubella vaccination, 2019
Asian	Non-Hispanic White	Asian / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
93.0	93.1	1.0

Source: CDC 2020. Vaccination Coverage Among Adolescents Aged 13–17 Years — United States, 2019. Supplementary Table 1.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/coverage/teenvaxview/pubs-presentations/NIS-teen-vac-coverage-estimates-2019-tables.html

Immunization of Children (Hepatitis B)

Percentage of children aged 19 to 35 months who received the universally recommended vaccination – primary series hepatitis B (Hep B) vaccine, 2017
Asian	Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders	Non-Hispanic White	Asian / Non-Hispanic White Ratio	Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
94.7	90.7	91.1	1.0	1.0

Source: CDC 2018. Vaccination Coverage Among Children Aged 19–35 Months — United States, 2017. Supplementary Table 1.
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/59414

HEPATITIS C - ACUTE

Hepatitis C, Acute (Cases per 100,000 population), 2018
Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Pacific Islander / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
0.2	1.3	0.2

CDC 2020. Viral Hepatitis Surveillance — United States, 2018. Table 3.2.
https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/statistics/2018surveillance/pdfs/2018HepSurveillanceRpt.pdf [PDF | 7.76MB]

HEPATITIS C - CHRONIC

Adults (Chronic Hepatitis C)

Percentage of reported cases of past or present hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, 2013-2016
Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Pacific Islander / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
0.8	36.4	0.02

Source: CDC 2018. Viral Hepatitis Surveillance – United States, 2016. Table 4.4
http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/Statistics/2016Surveillance/index.htm

Death Rate (Chronic Hepatitis C)

Rate per 100,000 of Hepatitis-B-Related Deaths, 2018
Asian/Pacific Islander	Non-Hispanic White	Asian/Pacific Islander / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
1.43	3.35	0.4

CDC 2020. Viral Hepatitis Surveillance — United States, 2018. Table 3.7.
https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/statistics/2018surveillance/pdfs/2018HepSurveillanceRpt.pdf [PDF | 7.76MB]

¹CDC, 2007. Hepatitis Awareness Month - May 2007. MMWR v. 56, no. 18, page 1. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5618.pdf [PDF | 551KB]
*All data in the above surveys relate to non-Hispanic Asians/Pacific Islanders

Last Modified: 12/31/2020 10:17:00 AM

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