Researchers encourage screening for hepatitis C by patients’ birth year

An estimated 17,000 new cases of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection go unreported each year. Yet researchers found only 8.3% of the 60,722 eligible patients at 14 community health centers were screened for HCV, according to new research in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association (JAOA).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidelines call for testing all patients born between 1945 and 1965 for HCV, regardless of their risk profile. Often called a “silent epidemic,” HCV infection is frequently unnoticed because people with the disease have no obvious symptoms. Identifying and treating those patients early improves outcomes and helps contain transmission.

“HCV screening can reduce health inequities due to undiagnosed, untreated infection,” said co-author Erica Turse, DO, MPH, of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. “Swift intervention is the best shot these patients have to avoid cirrhosis, carcinoma and end-stage liver disease.”

Researchers from the Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; the University of Mississippi Medical Center; and two Florida clinics conducted the large-scale electronic health record review to hone in on screening gaps among eligible patients under the birth year criteria.

Read the JAOA study to learn more about the researchers’ findings.