New Tools in HCV Diagnosis, in Light of the Enhanced Awareness and the New Drugs for Treatment: SMARTube and Stimmunology

Table 4

Stimulation Index (SI) distribution among HCV infection disease stages (according to clinical laboratory results of HCV antibody testing on current assays).

Countries	HCV infection stages and SI distribution
	Window period*; SI = ∞	Recent seroconversions**; SI > 1.2	Chronic infections**; 0.8 < SI < 1.2	Cleared infections**; SI < 0.8
Russia	0	0	13	0
Romania	5	0	21	9
Turkey	0	3	12	7
Kenya	1	0	7	1
Hungary	1	0	19	4
China	2	9	520	0

*HCV infections missed by regular serology, but detected using the SMARTube blood pretreatment step.
**HCV seropositives, confirmed by local algorithms.