This ancient disease still kills 1 million people every year
“A new generation of drugs promised salvation from hepatitis B and C. What went wrong?”
NSW Dried Blood Spot HIV and Hepatitis C Testing Pilot: Mid-Point Evaluation, November 2016 – December 2020
“The NSW DBS Pilot improved the reach of HIV and hepatitis C testing for a range of priority populations and people who had not recently received testing. Overall, ten new HIV diagnoses were detected: nine via online self-registration and one via assisted registration in prison. No new HIV diagnoses were detected via assisted registration in community settings. There was low uptake of hepatitis C DBS testing via the online self-registration pathway, but in this arm of the study, the proportion of people with current hepatitis C infection among people who recently injected drugs was comparable to other settings. Prison settings accounted for a high proportion of hepatitis C DBS tests in the pilot and reported high treatment uptake. Treatment uptake for hepatitis C testing in the community is lower than in prison but comparable with standard of care and demonstrates success in expanding the reach of testing for priority populations. There are disparities in hepatitis C treatment uptake across settings.”
Q&A: Overlooked health issues that ‘need to be addressed’ in Asian communities
“Hepatitis B, diabetes, cancer, CVD, maternal mortality and suicide disproportionately affect AA and NH/PI populations. Physicians should know and routinely implement updated screening and vaccine guidelines to prevent AA and NH/PI health disparities.”
Even with HCV cure, surveillance for portal hypertension, HCC ‘should be mandatory’
“Sustained virologic response occurred in 81.8% of patients after the first DAA treatment course. Despite this, further decompensation occurred in 19% of patients and 2.9% developed hepatocellular carcinoma.”
HCV Monitoring in Low-Risk, Undiagnosed Blood Donors Reveals Ongoing Untreated Infections
“Despite being screened for hepatitis C virus (HCV) risk and having a lower prevalence of infection than the general population, findings from a recent study suggest blood donors mirror HCV trends in the general population and highlight the ongoing prevalence of untreated infections in groups less likely to have obvious risks for acquisition.”
Non-Invasive Tests Predict Liver Cancer Risk in Hepatitis C Patients After SVR
“A new study found transient elastography and the fibrosis-4 index offer acceptable predictive performance for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) who have achieved a sustained viral response (SVR).”
Video:
Hepatitis C is now curable but eliminating the disease from Australia comes with large challenges
