Department of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases and Surveillance, National Institute of Public Health NIH - National Research Institute, Polska.
Przegl Epidemiol. 2024 Sep 18;78(2):234-249. doi: 10.32394/pe/191941. Epub 2024 Aug 2.
The war invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led to mass migration. By January 3, 2023, nearly a million people sought refuge in Poland. The Polish Act on Assistance to Ukrainian Citizens provided comprehensive support, ensuring legal residence, free medical insurance, social benefits, and access to education and employment. Simultaneously, the global public health crisis persisted, with the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic driven by the Omicron variant. The epidemic state in Poland was lifted on May, 2022.
This paper aims to summarize the epidemiological situation of HCV infections in Poland in 2022, a year characterized by dual crises.
Epidemiological surveillance case-based data on HCV for 2022, diagnosis rates from bulletins for the years 2014-2022, and the number of deaths for 2022 from Statistics Poland were compared with previous years' data.
In 2022, the rate of new HCV diagnoses rose to 6.68 per 100,000, totaling 2,528 cases (a 46% increase from the previous year). Polish nationals accounted for 87% of cases. Gender distribution was equal. There was an overall increase in HCV diagnoses across all voivodeships, with a return to pre-pandemic trends observed only in Zachodniopomorskie. Diagnoses were predominantly made in primary healthcare (one-third) and during hospitalization (one-fourth). Twenty-six cases of acute hepatitis C (1%, PL definition) were identified. At diagnosis, 5.6% of infected showed signs of liver damage. Hepatitis C was responsible for 86 deaths. Imported infections accounted for 5.7% of cases. 2.7% of HCV infections in 2022 were diagnosed in refugees from Ukraine, mainly in women aged 40 to 59. All persons of Ukrainian nationality accounted for 10.4% of HCV cases detected in 2022.
Expanding the availability and accessibility of testing is essential, particularly addressing the needs of key populations, including non-Polish speakers. The strategy for HCV elimination should encompass comprehensive measures aimed at prevention, diagnosis, and treatment to effectively curb the virus's spread among subgroups and mitigate its long-term health impacts.
2022 年 2 月乌克兰战争的入侵导致了大规模的移民潮。截至 2023 年 1 月 3 日，近 100 万人在波兰寻求庇护。波兰的《乌克兰公民援助法案》提供了全面的支持，确保了合法居住权、免费医疗保险、社会福利以及接受教育和就业的机会。与此同时，全球公共卫生危机持续存在，第五波由奥密克戎变体驱动的 COVID-19 疫情仍在持续。波兰的疫情状态已于 2022 年 5 月解除。
本文旨在总结波兰 2022 年 HCV 感染的流行病学情况，这一年是双重危机的一年。
对 2022 年 HCV 的基于监测病例的流行病学数据、2014-2022 年公报中的诊断率以及波兰统计局的 2022 年死亡人数与前几年的数据进行了比较。
2022 年，新 HCV 诊断率上升至每 10 万人 6.68 例，共计 2528 例（比前一年增加 46%）。波兰国民占病例的 87%。性别分布均等。所有省份的 HCV 诊断均有所增加，只有西滨海省（Zachodniopomorskie）恢复到了大流行前的趋势。诊断主要在初级保健（三分之一）和住院期间（四分之一）进行。发现 26 例急性丙型肝炎（波兰定义为 1%）。诊断时，5.6%的感染者有肝损伤迹象。丙型肝炎导致 86 人死亡。输入性感染占病例的 5.7%。2022 年，2.7%的 HCV 感染是在乌克兰难民中诊断出的，主要是 40 至 59 岁的女性。所有乌克兰国籍的人在 2022 年检测到的 HCV 病例中占 10.4%。
扩大检测的可及性和可用性至关重要，特别是要满足包括非波兰语使用者在内的重点人群的需求。HCV 消除策略应包括旨在预防、诊断和治疗的综合措施，以有效遏制该病毒在亚群中的传播，并减轻其对长期健康的影响。
