We Need a New National Strategy for Hepatitis C Virus Screening.

Abstract

* Abbreviation: HCV — : hepatitis C virus Over the last decade, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections nationwide have been on the rise. Primarily driven by widespread injection drug use, the epidemiology of HCV is now dramatically different compared with 10 years ago.1 An infection that was mostly prevalent among adults born between 1945 and 1965 (baby boomers) is now just as common, if not more so, among young adults, including women of childbearing age.2,3 These women with HCV infection get pregnant and ultimately deliver infants with perinatal exposure.4 Because there are few systems in place to track and subsequently test these infants, several studies have demonstrated that most exposed infants never receive HCV testing of any kind.5,6 These data have largely come from single institutions, single health systems, or city public health systems.6–9 In this issue of Pediatrics , Lopata et al10 were able to use the Tennessee Medicaid database to demonstrate on a state level that >75% of infants with HCV exposure are never tested. The advantages of this particular study are the availability of data over a 10-year time span across an entire state, particularly one that touches the Appalachian region, where … Address correspondence to Ravi Jhaveri, MD, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, 225 E Chicago Ave, Box 20, Chicago, IL 60611-2991. E-mail: ravi.jhaveri{at}northwestern.edu