Many organizations push for widespread screening of hepatitis C but a new study published in the British Medical Journal found that such drastic recommendations may be premature and wholly unjustifiable.
Roughly 2.7 million people in the U.S. are infected with hepatitis C virus and 16,000 people die or undergo liver transplants each year because of the disease, a relatively small number, according to the report. Meanwhile, the cost of hepatitis drugs has grown ever more expensive.
That said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and numerous other organization have recommended screenings for the disease in everyone born between 1945 and 1965 since estimates have suggested three-quarters of those infected are baby boomers.
According to the British Medical Journal study, researchers have found little evidence that screening all individuals in the given age group will save lives.
Additionally, some treatments can cause serious adverse events that result in persistent disability, hospital admission or death, so screening and treating millions of people who test positive for the virus but have never experienced any symptoms could actually cause unnecessary harm, according to the report.
Researches concede that the pressure on physicians and clinicians to adhere to converging recommendations for widespread screening is mounting, but urge practitioners to avoid screening patients unnecessarily until strong evidence finds that antiviral therapy is clinically effective and the benefits outweigh the harms.
"We have a limited window of opportunity to collect appropriate evidence on whether [widespread screening] is a good idea," according to the study. "Until then, physicians should not be pressured to enforce birth cohort screening strategies out of enthusiasm for new treatments that have not yet been shown to cause long term clinical improvement."
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