>> There is a sizable rate of new HCV infections yearly in the U.S. and E.U. but I believe it is much lower than at the peak , and should decline further with better education and preventative measures. <<<
Looks like I spoke too soon on that last part:
Hepatitis C rises among young people
Mass. officials suspect jump tied to drug use
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | May 8, 2007
Hepatitis C infections among Massachusetts adolescents and young adults rose dramatically from 2001 to 2005, new data show, prompting health officials to warn doctors statewide to screen and educate patients about the blood-borne disease.
Confirmed and suspected cases of hepatitis C among 15- to 25-year-olds climbed from 254 in 2001 to at least 784 in 2005, the state Department of Public Health found. In Boston, about 100 cases of the potentially painful and life-threatening liver infection were reported in 2006 -- the most this decade.
Massachusetts is better at tracking infectious diseases than many other states, making it difficult to compare state data with nationwide trends.
The spike in hepatitis C, an illness most often spread by drug needles tainted with the virus, emerges during a period of epidemic heroin use in Massachusetts.
That is almost certainly no coincidence, said John Auerbach , the state's public health commissioner. "I suspect there is a direct correlation between the increase in hepatitis C among younger people and the increase in injection drug use and heroin use, in particular," Auerbach said. "It is terribly tragic, but it is very consistent with the pattern of risk that goes along with injection-drug use." ..
and:
Dr. Maureen Jonas , a pediatric liver specialist at Children's Hospital Boston , regularly witnesses the consequences of that behavior.
"I am seeing, sadly, a fair number of 13-, 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds with IV drug use and hepatitis C," Jonas said. "A lot of them -- not all of them -- knew that the person whose needle they shared had hepatitis of some sort.( !! )
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