New recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) advise doctors to consider offering screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) to all adults born between 1945 and 1965.
New and less invasive blood test screening methods are now backed by enough evidence to deem them safer than liver biopsies, which supports the USPSTF’s recommendation. The task force’s previous guidelines, released in 2004, recommended against screening people at average risk for HCV. They were based on lack of adequate evidence for or against screening high-risk adults, namely injection drug users.
The new recommendation comes after a similar statement from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for HCV testing for all baby boomers issued earlier this year. Baby boomers currently comprise three-quarters of the total number of Americans infected with HCV. The USPSTF now recommends screening of all high-risk adults, regardless of whether they are baby boomers.
Hepatitis C is transmitted through blood, and drug users who have shared needles as well as people who have had a blood transfusion or an organ transplant before mandatory viral testing commenced in 1992 are also at risk of having the disease. It is estimated that between 1 and 2 percent of Americans—and 3 to 4 percent of baby boomers—have HCV, which can lead to conditions such as cirrhosis and liver failure.
