Open AccessA model-based framework for chronic hepatitis C prevalence estimation
Author(s) -
Abdullah Hamadeh,
Zeny Feng,
Murray Krahn,
William Wong
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0225366
Subject(s) - estimation , medicine , population , context (archaeology) , hepatitis c , disease , disease burden , natural history , demography , environmental health , geography , management , archaeology , sociology , economics
Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) continues to be a highly burdensome disease worldwide. The often-asymptomatic nature of early-stage CHC means that the disease often remains undiagnosed, leaving its prevalence highly uncertain. This generates significant uncertainty in the planning of hepatitis C eradication programs to meet WHO targets. The aim of this work is to establish a mathematical framework for the estimation of a geographic locale’s CHC prevalence and the proportion of its CHC population that remains undiagnosed. A Bayesian MCMC approach is taken to infer these populations from the observed occurrence of CHC-related events using a recently published natural history model of the disease. Using the Canadian context as a specific example, this study estimates that in 2013, the CHC prevalence rate in Canada was 0.63% (95% CI: 0.53% - 0.72%), with 27.1% (95% CI: 19.3% - 36.1%) of the infected population undiagnosed.