The development of a safe and effective cure for hepatitis C was a medical triumph.
But a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report shows the treatment reaches an alarmingly low number of people who are infected — 40% of whom might not even know they have a disease that, left untreated, can lead to sickness and death from liver cancer and liver failure.
“Hepatitis C is a silent killer; most people do not know they have hepatitis C until they’re in late stages of disease,” said Dr. Carolyn Wester, director of CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis. “It’s essential that all Americans get tested at least once in their lifetime.”
Ten years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) to treat chronic hep-C, most of the U.S.’s estimated two million infected remain uncured.
Key barriers include: treatment costs among the under- and uninsured; a cumbersome diagnostic process; and restrictive coverage policies among some state Medicaid programs and commercial insurers.
Arizona’s Medicaid has removed most restrictions and prior authorization requirements for treating hep-C.
Dr. Wester said the CDC’s findings underline the need for the Biden Administration’s proposal to eliminate the disease, which advocates like Dr. Francis S. Collins of NIH argue could save tens of thousands of lives and tens of billions of health care dollars.
“Everybody with hepatitis C deserves to be cured,” said Dr. Wester. “We can’t wait another 10 years.”
Hep-C infections contributed to the deaths of more than 14,800 people in 2020.
The Arizona Department of Health Services estimates more than 10,000 cases of hep-C are reported each year in the state. It says the illness ranks among Arizona's most commonly reported infectious diseases and affects an estimated 90,000 residents.
Tracking prevalence in the state has grown complicated in recent years, because ADHS uses electronic laboratory reporting as a proxy for traditional disease surveillance. Moreover, the agency says its hep-C programs recently received a significant funding cut from the CDC.
