OBJECTIVES

: It was estimated that the hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence was 1.00% worldwide in 2015, most of which was contributed by Asia. Our objective was to review the disease burden of HCV in Asia.

METHODS

: Systematic reviews of HCV-related burden in Asia countries were identified through Medline and Embase. Studies focusing on clinical, humanistic and economic burden of HCV were included. HCV prevalence, incidence, mortality, health related quality of life (QoL), resource use and cost were extracted.

RESULTS

: Of the 1218 studies identified, 16 systematic reviews were included, with 15 and 1 reviews considering clinical and humanistic burden respectively. No review reported economic burden. Reviews for clinical burden included 291 studies and covered 19,242,937 persons. Overall, HCV prevalence in Asia was estimated to be 1.40-3.80% in 2005 and 1.00-5.40% in 2013. Pakistan reported the highest prevalence of 4.70-6.80% in 2013. With time, a reduction of prevalence was observed: from 3.97-4.45% in 2000 to 0.36-1.65% in 2010 in China, from 1.30-1.70% in 1993 to 0.78-0.80% in 2013 in Korea, from 1.85-5.50% in 1997 to 0.80-0.87% in 2013 in India, and from 3.80-4.00% in 1994 to 1.00-2.00% in 2007 in Vietnam. Three studies reported HCV incidence. The annual incidence in Fujian Province of China increased from 2.63% in 2006 to 6.01% in 2010, which was substantially higher than the incidence in Japan (0.28-0.36%). Seven studies reported liver-specific case fatality (2.60-21.1%.) and all-cause mortality (3.70-50.5%) in Japan over 5.8 to 11.5 years of follow-up. The review of humanistic burden included 7 studies estimating the disutility of HCV in China with values ranging from -0.079 to -0.260 by EQ-5D and from -0.032 to -0.161 by SF-6D.

CONCLUSIONS

: The clinical burden of HCV in Asia was substantial but decreased over years. More research is required to extend our understanding of HCV incidence, mortality, QoL and economics.