The viral infection hepatitis C is a major public health problem that can lead to liver disease, liver cancer, and death. The viral disease is usually spread through blood-to-blood contact. Intravenous drug misuse is the primary cause worldwide.
The rates of infection vary around the world and within the U.S. Take one key area – Virginia – one in 1,000 Virginians was diagnosed with the disease in 2020, based on the most recent data available.
The Virginia Department of Health is assuming this number is an undercount because there was a significant drop in testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, there is a lack of awareness within some sectors of the population about the disease. For example, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report notes that while an estimated 2 million people in the United States have hepatitis C, four in 10 are unaware of their condition.
Hepatitis C is a virus that can infect the liver. If left untreated, it can sometimes cause serious and potentially life-threatening damage to the liver over many years.
The CDC lists three main challenges that prevent people from getting lifesaving care: the cost of treatment, restrictive insurance coverage, and challenges in diagnosis.
To help to meet such challenges, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute (Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory) scientists are putting together plans to meet the public health challenge of hepatitis C.
Hepatitis C can be diagnosed and checked using blood tests and there are grounds for improving the accuracy of testing and the associated time-to-result.
This will included new measures for routine surveillance (and subsequent trending). In addition, there will be laboratory testing of hepatitis C in high-impact settings. The project will also provide genomic sequencing of viral hepatitis samples provided by the commonwealth.
To support the medical community, the researchers will upload data and report sequencing results with a rapid turnaround in order to give state health workers a quick understanding of the severity and transmissibility of the virus. This is on the basis that by more effectively detecting hepatitis C, then researchers will be able to better interrupt outbreaks and also to control transmission clusters to improve public health outcomes.
