HealthClosure of CDC hepatitis lab imperils U.S. outbreak response, prevention

The loss leaves the country with no good way to measure the scale of the viral disease, 
By Helen Branswell April 14, 2025  Senior Writer, Infectious Diseases
An estimated 4 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C, a disease that can go undetected for years. Another 2.4 million people in this country are chronically infected with hepatitis B, which is the leading cause of liver cancer globally. Hepatitis B is preventable, and hepatitis C is curable. But the U.S. capacity to battle these viral scourges has been leveled a devastating blow with the April 1 closure of the country’s premier testing laboratory for viral hepatitis, experts warned. The lab was one of the targets of this month’s Department of Health and Human Services reductions in force, or RIFs, which slashed about 18% of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s workforce and abruptly terminated many of the public health programs conducted by the Atlanta-based agency.The loss of the CDC’s viral hepatitis lab will leave the country with no good way to measure the scale of the problem it faces with these diseases, they suggested, and less able to find the sources of — and put an end to — outbreaks that can be linked to contaminated food, in the case of hepatitis A, or poor infection control procedures in medical facilities, in the case of hepatitis B and C. 
TO CONTINUE READING :https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/14/cdc-hepatitis-lab-closes-rif-outbreak-response/