Regional Diversity of Hepatitis C Virus Prevalence: Seeking for Culture Specific Mode of Transmission

Chronic hepatitis C infection is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Although means of eradicating hepatitis C virus (HCV) are on their way, an effective HCV vaccine is yet to be discovered. Cur-rent strategies for preventing HCV are to be closely related to the understanding of regional epidemiology and possible mode of infection. South Korea is considered to be HCV low prevalent area re-porting the general prevalence rate less than 1.5%.1 However, Kwon et al.2 reported that there are noticeable differences in HCV distribution among the regions and counties, highest be-ing age-adjusted prevalence greater than 3.5 % in a county of Busan, southwest coast of South Korea. Considering the ap-proximated HCV prevalence in Korea being 0.12 % to 0.13%, the prevalence of 3.5 % is stunning. This alarming figure shoul