PHILADELPHIA, November 4, 2011 – According to a new study being published early online in Annals of Internal Medicine, the flagship journal of the American College of Physicians, birth cohort screening for hepatitis C is cost effective in the primary care setting. A proactive screening strategy could identify over 800,000 currently unidentified cases, which could save many thousands of lives each year.
About 1.5 percent of the nation's population is infected with hepatitis C (HCV), a virus that can cause inflammation and permanent liver damage. The infection is most prevalent among people born from 1945 through 1965, and approximately 50 to 75 percent of those with HCV are unaware that they are infected. This is a problem because HCV progresses slowly, and the risk of serious complications increases as time passes. In 2005, HCV resulted in up to 13,000 deaths. Experts say that without changes to current case identification and treatment, deaths from HCV are projected to increase to 35,000 a year by 2030.
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