Current hepatitis C virus testing guidelines miss too many cases, study suggest
A review of blood samples for nearly 5,000 patients seen at The Johns Hopkins Hospital Emergency Department suggests that federal guidelines for hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening may be missing up to a quarter of all cases and argues for updated universal screening. A report on the study is published online ahead of print in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases . Currently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends one-time HCV testing for all adults born between 1945 and 1965, or for those with risk factors such as injection drug use, HIV or use of clotting factors. But up to one-quarter of infections could remain undiagnosed, according to results of the new study, and the authors say that universal one-time testing of all U.S. adults seeking care at inner-city emergency rooms might identify many more people who have the virus, getting them into management and treatment . Better screening would also reduce the risk of spreading the infection ...