The AP
(2/21, Neergaard) reports, "Deaths from liver-destroying hepatitis C
are on the rise, and new data shows baby boomers especially should take
heed -- they are most at risk."
"Deaths attributed to hepatitis in the US rose during the past decade to surpass those from HIV," Bloomberg News
(2/21, Flinn) reports. "Researchers studied 22 million death records
from 1999 to 2007, finding 15,000 died from hepatitis C alone, compared
with 13,000 from HIV." They found that "as many as 1.4 million people
are living with chronic hepatitis B...and 3.2 million have hepatitis C,
with two-thirds born from 1946 to
1964," according to the study published in the Feb. 21 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
MedPage Today
(2/21, Smith) reports that "one-time screening and then treating people
based on birth cohort – specifically those born from 1945 through 1965 –
would be cost-effective," argues a companion study
in the same journal. Analysis revealed that
"birth-cohort screening identified an extra 808,580 cases of chronic
infection, compared with the status quo, at a cost of $2,874 per case."
In other words, "depending on the form of subsequent treatment, the
screening would prevent between 82,300 and 121,000 deaths, with an
incremental cost-effectiveness ratio per quality-adjusted life year
gained ranged from $15,700 to $35,700," the study calculated.
According to HealthDay
(2/21, Reinberg), "'These data underscore the urgent need to address
the health threat posed by chronic hepatitis B and C in the United
States,' said investigator Dr. Scott Holmberg, chief of the Epidemiology
and Surveillance Branch in CDC's Division of Viral Hepatitis."
No comments:
Post a Comment