Hepatologists and experts are calling for those born between 1945 and 1975 to be tested for hepatitis C.

Today, hepatologists and scientific societies called for Ministry of Health which calls for diagnostic testing for hepatitis C among the population born between 1945 and 1975 who have never been tested, and recalls that Four people die from this disease every week despite the fact that there is a treatment that cures it.

In its statement, the Alliance for the Elimination of Viral Hepatitis in Spain (AEHVE) recalls that late diagnosis of the infection occurs in “more than a third of cases” and causes “irreversible” liver damage. In the general population, the cases that still need to be treated and cured are people who contracted the infection more than two decades ago and do not know that they have it or were not treated at the time, it recalls in the note.

188 deaths per year

It highlights that the World Health Organization (WHO) itself recommends offering it to all adults who have not been pre-tested as a strategy to achieve elimination goals in 2030. Likewise, AEHVE adds that the use of artificial intelligence and new diagnostic tools tested during the Covid-19 pandemic “allow for cheaper diagnostics”, which makes experts defend cost-effectiveness among the population aged 50 to 85 years. undiagnosed hepatitis C.

“Considering that there are 188 deaths every year in Spain due to causes related to hepatitis C, we cannot be complacent: they represent almost 10% of road deaths and, like those, they are preventable and avoidable,” concluded AEHVE coordinator Javier García-Saman.