US starts grappling with 'travesty' of untreated hepatitis C

Too many Americans are missing out on a cure for hepatitis C
ByLAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer   ABC News-  December 20, 2022, 12:35 PM

WASHINGTON -- Too many Americans are missing out on a cure for hepatitis C, and a study underway in a hard-hit corner of Kentucky is exploring a simple way to start changing that.
The key: On-the-spot diagnosis to replace today's multiple-step testing.
In about an hour and with just a finger-prick of blood, researchers can tell some of the toughest-to-treat patients — people who inject drugs — they have hepatitis C and hand over potentially life-saving medication.
Waiting for standard tests “even one or two days for someone who’s actively using drugs, we can lose touch with them,” said Jennifer Havens of the University of Kentucky, who's leading the study in rural Perry County. To start treatment right away "that’s huge, absolutely huge.”
Single-visit hepatitis C diagnosis already is offered in other countries, and now the White House wants to make it a priority here.
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​“It’s frankly an embarrassment” that the U.S. doesn’t have such an option, said Jeffrey Weiss of New York’s Mount Sinai health system, who works with a community hepatitis C outreach program. “We have many people we’ve tested and want to give their results to and can’t find them.”
At least 2.4 million Americans are estimated to have hepatitis C, a virus that silently attacks the liver, leading to cancer or the need for an organ transplant. It leads to more than 14,000 deaths a year. That's even though a daily pill taken for two to three months could cure nearly everyone with few side effects.
Yet in the U.S., more than 40% of people with hepatitis C don't know they're infected. Fewer than 1 in 3 insured patients who are diagnosed go on to get timely treatment. And new infections are surging among younger adults who share drug needles.

​“This is a travesty,” said Dr. Francis Collins, the former National Institutes of Health director who’s now a White House adviser devising a new national strategy to tackle hepatitis C.
Most likely to fall through the cracks are “people in tough times” -- those who inject drugs, are uninsured or on Medicaid, or are homeless or incarcerated -- who can’t navigate what Collins calls the “clunky” diagnosis process and other barriers to the pricey pills.

“It’s frankly an embarrassment” that the U.S. doesn’t have such an option, said Jeffrey Weiss of New York’s Mount Sinai health system, who works with a community hepatitis C outreach program. “We have many people we’ve tested and want to give their results to and can’t find them.”

​At least 2.4 million Americans are estimated to have hepatitis C, a virus that silently attacks the liver, leading to cancer or the need for an organ transplant. It leads to more than 14,000 deaths a year. That's even though a daily pill taken for two to three months could cure nearly everyone with few side effects.
Yet in the U.S., more than 40% of people with hepatitis C don't know they're infected. Fewer than 1 in 3 insured patients who are diagnosed go on to get timely treatment. And new infections are surging among younger adults who share drug needles.

“This is a travesty,” said Dr. Francis Collins, the former National Institutes of Health director who’s now a White House adviser devising a new national strategy to tackle hepatitis C.
Most likely to fall through the cracks are “people in tough times” -- those who inject drugs, are uninsured or on Medicaid, or are homeless or incarcerated -- who can’t navigate what Collins calls the “clunky” diagnosis process and other barriers to the pricey pills.

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