A decade after a cure for hepatitis C became available, millions of Americans are still infected with the deadly virus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday.
Between 2013 and 2022, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) was cleared from the blood in only one in three infected people, either by treatment with medication or by the patient’s immune response, the CDC said, calling that number “jarringly low.”
“The development of a safe and highly effective cure for hepatitis C is one of the most stunning medical achievements of the past 20 years,” Dr. Francis S. Collins of the National Institutes of Health, who leads the White House National Hepatitis C Elimination Program, said in a statement. “But unfortunately, too many people in our country still face insurmountable barriers to accessing this treatment.”
Among Americans without health insurance, only one in four with HCV had clearance of the virus. That proportion fell to one in six among uninsured people under age 40, according to data published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Left untreated, HCV can cause liver cancer and liver failure. In 2020, the virus contributed to more than 14,800 U.S. deaths, the researchers said.
The drugs cost tens of thousands of dollars. Some state Medicaid programs and commercial insurance carriers won’t pay for treatment until patients have severe liver damage or have abstained from drugs or alcohol for months, which contradicts medical guidelines, the CDC said.
Writing in JAMA earlier this year, Collins and Rachael Fleurence of the Executive Office of the President at the White House outlined a proposal for a national program for eliminating hepatitis C by developing better tests and improving access to treatment.
“It is rare to have the opportunity, using a simple and safe oral medication, to eliminate a lethal disease,” they wrote. “But that is the situation facing the United States with hepatitis C.”
