[An epidemiological study on the rate of becoming chronic in HCV infection]

Anti-HCV (+) and/or HCV RNA (+) were chosen for study on patients admitted to two provincial hospitals and "professional" blood donors in one of the areas in Anhui province in 1992-1996. Clinical diagnosis, treatment and epidemiology on HCV infection were retrospectively reviewed and in the meantime their present condition together with experimental data were studied; Chronic tendency on HCV infection of blood donors was described. Results showed that the rates of duration on becoming chronic for HCV infection were: six month later-55.93%, one year-50%, two-years-48.54%, three years-46.47% and four years-46.43%. Rate of becoming chronic after HCV infection was continuously in high level, then slowly decreasing, to 46%-48% in two years, still much higher than hepatitis B which had a rate of 5%-10% becoming chronic.