Lee YC, et al. - Researchers investigated the incidence and mortality related to liver cirrhosis in patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and assessed if antiviral therapy could change their infection risk. They conducted a community-based cohort study of a total of 115,336 adults (mean age 52.2 years; 35.6% men) without cirrhosis participating in the New Taipei City Health Screening in 2005–2008. Participants were classified as follows: noncirrhotic HCV (NC-HCV) (n = 2,839), noncirrhotic hepatitis B virus (NC-HBV) (n = 8,316), or no HBV or HCV infection (NBNC) (n = 104,181). During the 8 years of follow-up, they observed a 22% increased risk for hospitalization for overall infection episodes among patients without cirrhosis and with HCV infections (NC-HCV), but not among patients without cirrhosis and with HBV infections (NC-HBV). Considering the individual sites of infection, they identified increased risks for septicemia and lower respiratory tract, reproductive, and urinary tract infections among patients with NC-HCV. A 20% reduced risk for hospitalization for all infections was observed in correlation to receipt of ribavirin plus peg-interferon therapy among patients with HCV infection. Findings emphasize making early diagnosis and treatment when there is clinical suspicion of infection syndrome in HCV patients.