At a glance
Numbers and rates* of deaths with hepatitis C listed as a cause of death† among residents, by state or jurisdiction — United States, 2018–2022
Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Provisional Multiple Cause of Death on CDC WONDER Online Database. Data are based on information from all death certificates filed in the vital records offices of the 50 states and the District of Columbia through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Deaths of nonresidents (for example, nonresident aliens, nationals living abroad, residents of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and other US territories) and fetal deaths are excluded. Accessed at CDC Wonder on November 12, 2023. CDC WONDER data set documentation and technical methods can be accessed here and here.
* Rates are age-adjusted per 100,000 US standard population during 2000 by using the following age group distribution (in years): <1, 1–4, 5–14, 15–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, 65–74, 75–84, and ≥85. For age-adjusted death rates, the age-specific death rate is rounded to one decimal place before proceeding to the next step in the calculation of age-adjusted death rates for NCHS Multiple Cause of Death on CDC WONDER. This rounding step might affect the precision of rates calculated for small numbers of deaths. Missing data are not included.
† Cause of death is defined as one of the multiple causes of death and is based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes B17.1 and B18.2 (hepatitis C).
Summary
During 2022, a total of 12,717 hepatitis C-related deaths were reported in the Provisional United States Multiple Cause of Death data from the National Center for Health Statistics. During 2022, the age-adjusted death rate was 2.89 deaths per 100,000 population, representing a 22% decrease from the corresponding rate during 2018.
In 2022, the highest rates of death were observed in Oklahoma and the District of Columbia (11.15 and 7.18 deaths per 100,000 population, respectively), whereas the lowest rates were observed in Connecticut and Georgia (1.20 and 1.27 deaths per 100,000 population, respectively).
Treatment of hepatitis C with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) and sustained viral response is associated with reductions in mortality among persons with chronic hepatitis C. Although death certificate data can help characterize deaths in the US associated with hepatitis C, underreporting of hepatitis C as a primary or underlying cause of death does occur1.
- Spradling PR, Zhong Y, Moorman AC, et al. The persistence of underreporting of hepatitis C as an underlying or contributing cause of death, 2011–2017. Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Sep 7;73(5):891–-894. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciab108. PMID: 33561187.