By Ethan Covey
Rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) viral clearance range widely across U.S. states. However, all jurisdictions are lagging behind national goals.
The CDC report is the first to provide state-specific information about HCV clearance cascades from all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2024;73:495-500).
“State-specific HCV clearance cascades can help states identify gaps, improve linkage to treatment and prevention services, and better allocate resources to increase their hepatitis C clearance rates,” Clarisse Tsang, MPH, a Health Department support lead/epidemiologist in CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis, told Infectious Disease Special Edition.
Ten years of data on people who received HCV testing by Quest Diagnostics from Jan. 1, 2013 through Dec. 31, 2022 were analyzed.
The median proportions of viral testing; initial infection, cured or cleared; and persistent infection or reinfection were 91%, 73%, 29% and 5%, respectively, across all states. Among individuals who were infected with HCV, percentages who received viral testing ranged from 51% in Hawaii to 99% in South Dakota. The percentage of those who were cured or cleared ranged from a high of 51% in Connecticut to a low of 10% in West Virginia.
No state achieved the current national elimination goals, which are 58% or higher by 2025 and 80% by 2030.
“The goal of hepatitis C elimination can be met. However, transformative change is needed nation-wide to test and treat everyone with this life-threatening disease,” Dr. Tsang said. “This report provides valuable insight into state-specific progress along the hepatitis C clearance cascade and offers all states, regardless of current capacity, the data to aid in monitoring their progress and identifying where additional resources are needed to diagnose, treat and prevent hepatitis C within their state.”
As the data used in this study came from a single commercial laboratory and are not comparable from state to state, Dr. Tsang said future measures of hepatitis C elimination would benefit from data across multiple labs, as well as data from states’ own public health registries.
“This would provide a more holistic and accurate picture of progress in each state to best address gaps in hepatitis C prevention and care,” she said.
