Sponsored Insight
Chronic hepatitis C (HCV) is a serious health problem that can lead to liver damage, cirrhosis and liver cancer.[1] In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) set a goal of eliminating HCV as a public health threat by 2030.[2] Despite treatment advances in recent years, there are still approximately 3.4 million Americans living with the virus.[3]
The fact is, people with HCV are not getting treatment for various reasons. Nearly half of Americans with HCV do not even know they have it, as the disease often does not exhibit symptoms in early stages.[4] Even among patients diagnosed with HCV, many choose not to seek out care because they are symptom-free, or for other reasons such as lack of access to treatment, including cost, or fear of adverse events and effectiveness of treatment.[5] With limited data available and general underreporting of the disease, US health officials may not truly realize the scope of the issue, or have the information they need to prioritize resources to address it.[6]
“HCV is a chronic viral infection that is possible to cure*,” said Sammy Saab, M.D., David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. “Equipping the healthcare community with easily accessible epidemiology data on screening, diagnosis and geographic distribution of HCV across the country is a crucial step towards the goal of HCV elimination in the US.”
That step has begun — MappingHepC.com is an interactive online resource aimed at improving the understanding of how HCV is distributed across the US, and which geographic areas are most affected. The website provides healthcare professionals, healthcare decision makers, government agencies, and those involved in research, advocacy, and management of HCV with information about the evolving HCV landscape, and may help guide efforts towards the goal of HCV elimination in the US. The website was developed using data from two large national laboratory datasets collected between 2013 and 2016, including more than 17 million HCV antibody tests and 1.5 million HCV RNA tests.[7]
Discover information on HCV in your state and take action—visit MappingHepC.com to see this data firsthand and learn more about the evolving HCV landscape in the US.
* Cure means the hepatitis C virus is not detectable in the blood months after treatment ends.
References
[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hepatitis C Questions and Answers for the Public. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/hcv/cfaq.htm Accessed November 1, 2018.
[2] World Health Organization. Combating hepatitis B and C to reach elimination by 2030. http://www.who.int/hepatitis/publications/hep-elimination-by-2030-brief/en/. Accessed November 1, 2018.
[3] Messina JP, Humphreys I., Flaxman A., et.al. Global distribution and prevalence of hepatitis C virus genotypes. Hepatology. 2015;61(1): 77-87 (and supplementary appendix).
[4] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Viral Hepatitis in the United States: Data and Trends. Available at https://www.hhs.gov/hepatitis/learn-about-viral-hepatitis/data-and-trends/index.html. Accessed November 1, 2018.
[5] American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. HCV Guidance: Recommendations for Testing, Managing, and Treating Hepatitis C. https://www.hcvguidelines.org/evaluate/testing-and-linkage. Accessed November 1, 2018.
[6] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. National Viral Hepatitis Action Plan 2017-2020. Available at https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/National%20Viral%20Hepatitis%20Action%20Plan%202017-2020.pdf.
[7] Chirikov et al. Development of a Comprehensive Dataset of Hepatitis C Patients and Examination of Disease Epidemiology in the United States, 2013–2016. Advances in Therapy 2018 35:1087–1102.