Hepatitis C: key data sources

Health Protection Scotland (formerly the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health), together with confirmatory hepatitis C testing laboratories, collects epidemiological data on all persons who have been diagnosed hepatitis C antibody positive in Scotland. Data on the numbers of persons diagnosed with hepatitis C in Scotland according to health board, year of diagnosis, age group, gender and risk factor information can be found at the Health Protection Scotland hepatitis C pages (scroll to the bottom of this link to find Hepatitis C information).

Information Services Division (ISD) holds information on hospital admissions related to hepatitis C in the Scottish Morbidity Record (SMR) databases. However, hepatitis C is often not recognised or recorded as the underlying reason for complications that lead to hospital admission. Consequently, these data likely underestimate the number of hospital admissions due to hepatitis C in Scotland and ISD does not routinely publish Hepatitis C information.