Table 1.
Seroprevalence of antibodies against hepatitis C virus in community-based studies
| Study site | Study period | Study population | Population size | % with HCV antibody | % with positive HCV RNA among anti-HCV seropositives |
| America | |||||
| United States[7] | 1988-1994 | National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, subjects aged ≥ 6 yr | 21241 | 1.8 | 73.9 |
| Puerto Rico[15] | 2001-2002 | Individuals aged 21-64 yr residing in the municipality of San Juan | 964 | 6.3 | Not done |
| Europe | |||||
| Greece[11] | 1997-1998 | Individuals over 15 yr in south western Greece | 1500 | 0.5 | Not done |
| Norway[9] | 2000-2001 | A subset of Oslo Health Study, subjects older than 30 yr | 11456 | 0.7 | 79.5 |
| France[10] | 1994 | Individuals aged 20-59 undergoing routine medical checkup in social security medical centers | 6283 | 1.2 | 81.0 |
| Spain[16] | 1997-1998 | Random sample of all ages in northern Spain | 1170 | 1.6 | 63.0 |
| Italy[12] | 1996 | Individuals of all ages which representative to southern Italy | 1352 | 12.6 | 84.7 |
| Asia | |||||
| India[8] | 1999 | Individuals of all ages living in rural area and engaged in agriculture-related occupations | 2973 | 0.9 | 80.8 |
| China[18] | 1992 | Individuals aged 1-59 yr in 30 provinces | 68000 | 3.2 | Not done |
| Taiwan[17] | 1991-1992 | Males aged 30-65 yr participated a cancer screening project | 11904 | 4.9 | Not done |
| Japan[14] | 1984-1995 | Residents aged 20-89 yr in southern Miyazaki Prefecture | 973 | 23 | Not done |
| Africa | |||||
| Egypt[13] | 1997 | Adults and children aged older than 10 yr residing in Nile Delta | 3999 | 24.3 | Non done |
HCV: Hepatitis C virus.