Hepatitis C Silent Killer Behind HIV

In Hong Kong, the estimated HCV prevalence in general population is around 0.3%. In the last decade, there have been increasing overseas reports of acute HCV infections via sexual transmission in men who have sex with men (MSM), especially those who were HIV positive. Locally, the prevalence of HCV in the HIV infected MSM seen at the Department of Health (DH) was found to be 1.3% for the years 2000-2012, which is 4 times that of the general population. In addition, rising trend of the infection among local HIV infected MSM has been observed in recent years. In 2013, a case series of sexually transmitted HCV infections among HIV infected MSM was found by DH.