Epidemiology of hepatitis C in Croatia in the European context

Table 1 Prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus and hepatitis C virus-RNA in different population groups in Europe (2004-2014)

Study population/country	Study area	Sample size	Anti-HCV	HCV RNA	Reference
Intravenous drug users
Belgium	Limburg, Antwerp	310	66.2%-84.4%	-	Mathei et al[64], 2005
Bulgaria	Sofia	773	73.90%	-	Vassilev et al[65], 2006
Croatia	Brod-Posavina County	208	44.60%	-	Kolovrat et al[28], 2010
	Zadar County	327	59%	-	Medić et al[27], 2008
	Multicenter	76	51.30%	-	Vilibic-Cavlek et al[29], 2011
	Zagreb, Rijeka, Split	401	29%-65%	-	Kolarić et al[26], 2010
Greece	Multicenter	-	43.3%-61.3%	-	Raptopoulou et al[60], 2011
Hungary	Budapest	215	15%	-	Gyarmathy et al[66], 2011
Italy	Multicenter	1085	83.20%	-	Camoni et al[62], 2010
	-	1320	48.10%	-	Curcio et al[61], 2011
	Multicenter	543	63.90%	68.30%	Stroffolini et al[63], 2012
Lithuania	Vilnius	300	80%	-	Gyarmathi et al[66], 2011
Luxembourg	Nationwide	268	81.30%	-	Removille et al[67], 2011
Romania	Bucharest	45	88.90%	57.80%	Sultana et al[68], 2011
Russia	St. Petersburg	387	94.60%	-	Paintsil et al[3], 2009
Spain	Barcelona	1132	88%	-	Muga et al[2], 2006
Sweden	Stockholm	310	86.50%	-	Norden et al[58], 2013
The Netherlands	Amsterdam	497	60%	69%	Lindenburg et al[59], 2011
	Rotterdam	452	38.80%	-	Norden et al[58], 2013
United Kingdom	Multicenter	1058	27%-74%	-	Hickman et al[69], 2007
Hemodialysis patients
Albania	Tirana	50	16.70%	56%	Vila Brunilda et al[79], 2014
Croatia	Zagreb	128	2.30%	-	Crnjaković-Palmović et al[34], 2005
	Istria County	157	3.40%	-	ICIPH[35], 2014
France	Multicenter	4718	7.70%	-	Saune et al[81], 2011
Germany	Multicenter	1633	5.80%	-	Kliem et al[83], 2008
Italy	Sicily	320	6.25%	-	Li Cavoli et al[82], 2011
Romania	Multicenter	174	39.26%	-	Voiculescu et al[78], 2010
Serbia	Nationwide	5208	12.70%	-	Djukanovic et al[80], 2012
1Persons with high-risk sexual behavior
Croatia (MSM, CSW, STD)	Multicenter	821	4.60%	73.10%	Vilibic-Cavlek et al[17], 2009
(MSM)	Zagreb	360	3.00%	-	Bozicevic et al[92], 2009
Estonia (CSW)	Tallin	227	7.90%	-	Uuskula et al[99], 2008
Italy (CSW)	Verona	345	0.90%	-	Zermiani et al[100], 2012
Moldova (MSM)	Balti, Chisinau	397	1.2%-3.7%	-	Zohrabyan et al[95], 2013
Sweden (MSM)	Stockholm	1008	0.50%	-	Blaxhult et al[93], 2013
United Kingdom (MSM)	London	2309	0.65%	-	Scott et al[94], 2010
(MSM)	London	1121	1.20%	-	Price et al[91], 2013
Prisoners
Croatia	Multicenter	3348	8.30%	-	Burek et al[37], 2010
	Multicenter	190	11%	-	Vilibic-Cavlek et al[18], 2011
France	Caen	597	4.90%	-	Verneuil et al[103], 2009
	Nationwide	60975	4.80%	79%	Semaille et al[102], 2013
	Multicenter	5957	5.20%	-	Roux et al[104], 2014
Hungary	Multicenter	4894	4.90%	-	Treso et al[9], 2012
Ireland	Regional (Northern)	1185	1.10%	-	Danis et al[113], 2007
Italy	Multicenter	973	38%	-	Babudieri et al[10], 2005
Macedonia	Prilep, Bitola	200	20%	-	Jovanovska et al[109], 2014
Portugal	-	445	11%	-	Barros et al[107], 2008
Spain	Multicenter	370	22.70%	-	Saiz de la Hoya et al[110], 2011
United Kingdom	Nationwide	10723	24.20%	-	Kirwan et al[106], 2011
	Scotland	5187	19%	-	Taylor et al[108], 2013
HIV-infected patients
Croatia	Zagreb	120	15%	72.20%	Seme et al[38], 2007
Italy	Ancona	440	32.90%	-	Orsetti et al[118], 2013
Slovenia	Nationwide	356	10.70%	68.40%	Seme et al[114], 2009
	Nationwide	579	7.60%	75%	Škamperle et al[117], 2014
Spain	Regional (Southern)	520	69%	71%	Cifuentes et al[119], 2012
United Kingdom	London	1017	8.90%	-	Mohsen et al[115], 2005
Alcohol abusers
Croatia	Istria County	167	2.40%	-	2ICIPH[35], 2014
Germany	Hamburg	463	5.20%	-	Schmidt et al[123], 2013
Spain	Salamanca	396	3.53%	-	Novo-Veleiro et al[126], 2013
Adult general population
Bulgaria	Plovdiv	2211	1.08%	-	Atanasova et al[136], 2014
Croatia	Primorje-Gorski Kotar County	785	3.70%	-	Tićac et al[39], 2010
	Zagreb	451	2.20%	-	Serdar et al[40], 2013
	Multicenter	1950	0.90%	-	Vilibic-Cavlek et al[36], 2014
France	Paris	14416	0.84%	-	Meffre et al[133], 2010
Germany	Berlin, Frankfurt	28809	2.4%-3.5%	68%	Vermehren et al[144], 2012
Greece	Crete	876	2.20%	-	Drositis et al[145], 2013
Italy	Regional (Southern)	2195	2.60%	-	Cozzolongo et al[150], 2009
Kosovo	-	1287	0.50%	-	Quaglio et al[142], 2008
Latvia	Multicenter	1459	2.40%	71.40%	Tolmane et al[146], 2011
Macedonia	Skopje	4000	0.40%	-	Kiprijanovska et al[140], 2013
The Netherlands	Amsterdam	1364	0.60%	-	Baaten et al[138], 2007
	Arnhem, Nijmegen	2200	0.20%	-	Slavenburg et al[137], 2008
Norway	Oslo	-	0.55%	-	Vik et al[143], 2008
Poland	Multicenter	1652	0.90%	-	Ganczak et al[135], 2009
Romania	Nationwide	13460	3.23%	91%	Gheorghe et al[147], 2010
Spain	Multicenter	-	0.6%-1.6%	-	Munoz-Gamez et al[132], 2013
Pregnant women
Croatia	Zagreb County	200	0.50%	-	Vilibic-Cavlek et al[17], 2009
	Istria County	930	1.30%	-	Kucinar et al[41], 2014
Greece	Piraeus	5497	0.80%	-	Panagopoulos et al[159], 2004
Poland	Warszaw	544	2.02%	-	Aniszewska et al[161], 2009
Russia	Cheboksary	150	3%	-	Asratian et al[163], 2009
Spain	Madrid	157	1%	-	Santiago et al[154], 2012
Switzerland	Multicenter	9057	0.71%	-	Prasad et al[153], 2007
Healthcare workers
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Tuzla	1699	0.40%	73.40%	Ahmetagić et al[50], 2006
Italy	Regional (Central)	733	1.8%-4.7%	-	Catalani et al[176], 2004
Poland	Warsaw	961	1.70%	19%	Slusarczyk et al[175], 2012
	Multicenter	414	1.40%	-	Ganczak et al[135], 2012
	Lodz	520	0.80%	-	Rybacki et al[173], 2013
Blood donors
Albania	Nationwide	52727	0.60%	-	Durro et al[182], 2010
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Tuzla	16082	0.08%	91.10%	Ahmetagić et al[177], 2009
Croatia	Multicenter	155634	0.04%	-	Grgičević et al[23], 2006
	Multicenter	-	0%-0.009%	-	Transfusion medicine newsletter[44]
Italy	Regional (South)	17912	0.50%		Sommese et al[181], 2014

¹Persons with high-risx sexual behavior: Men who have sex with men-MSM, commercial sex workers-CSW, persons with sexually transmitted diseases-STD;

²Istria County Institute of Public Health, Pula, Croatia. ICIPH: Istria County Institute of Public Health; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; HIV: Human immunodeficiency virus; IDU: Injecting drug users; STDs: Sexually transmitted diseases; CSW: Commercial sex workers; MSM: Men who have sex with men.