Can current national surveillance systems in England and Wales monitor sexual transmission of hepatitis C among HIV-infected men who have sex with men?

Table 1 Number of HIV diagnoses, hepatitis C laboratory diagnoses and reports from the sentinel surveillance of hepatitis C testing received and eligible for inclusion in the matching exercise by region of diagnosis/test

Region of diagnosis/test	HIV diagnoses (1982–2003)	Hepatitis C laboratory diagnoses (1996–2003)			Sentinel surveillance of hepatitis C testing (2002–2003)
	No of diagnoses	No of reports	No included in the matching exercise*		No of reports	No included in the matching exercise*
			n	%		n	%
East Midlands	1675	1721	1017	59	8337	7927	95
Eastern	2561	3859	2488	64	na	na	na
London	35401	2630	1822	69	3187	2959	92
North East	848	926	693	75	11814	9848	83
North West	3840	8107	6280	77	31576	27381	87
South East	5514	5655	3615	64	na	na	na
South West	1937	5748	4441	77	na	na	na
West Midlands	2454	4345	2895	67	9489	7282	76
Yorkshire & Humberside	2246	2162	1639	76	13513	12315	91
Wales	864	2874	1028	36	na	na	na
Total	57340	38027	25918	68	78058	67712	87

*reports were excluded from the matching exercise if patient information was missing or there were other anomalies.
na=not available

ISSN: 1471-2458