Hepatitis C News

The rates of hepatitis C infection at delivery among pregnant women in the U.S. increased between 2000 and 2015, especially among women with concomitant opioid use disorder, the prevalence of which also increased during that period.

Results from a real-world study of implementing hepatitis C testing into integrated care centers that deliver HIV services to people who inject drugs demonstrated superior infection awareness, testing and treatment compared with usual care.

WASHINGTON — An investigational vaccine failed to prevent chronic hepatitis C virus infection in a cohort of at-risk adults, according to results of a clinical trial presented at IDWeek.

WASHINGTON — Infectious Disease News and Healio.com are onsite at IDWeek 2019 to provide live coverage of the conference, held from Oct. 2 to 6.

The FDA has expanded the approval of Mavyret for a treatment duration of 8 weeks to include treatment-naive adults and children aged 12 years and older with chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 through 6 and compensated cirrhosis.

Treatment outcomes for chronic hepatitis C virus infection in people who inject drugs, or PWID, and patients on opioid substitution therapy are similar to those in patients without a history of injecting drugs, according to results from a systematic review and meta-analysis published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The introduction and success of direct-acting antivirals drove the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes work group to make major updates to its clinical practice guidelines regarding hepatitis C virus infection in chronic kidney disease, or CKD.

Infectious diseases had been a big part of my training in medical school in India, where I cared for and learned from patients with a wide variety of infections from extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis to cerebral malaria to Japanese encephalitis to all types of vaccine-preventable diseases because of lack of health care access. I became fascinated by the specialty, and my interest was further bolstered by role models in residency. A fellowship in a strong inner-city clinical program under awesome mentors with a plethora of pathology was invaluable for the years to come. My first job out of training was in a rural community hospital and Federally Qualified Health Center as the first ID physician in the center. It’s been a rewarding experience to start and run a very busy rural ID practice, taking care of uninsured and underinsured patients in an area with a shortage of health professionals. Sharing strong bonds with patients living with HIV over last 7 years in a small rural community has been a learning experience about their challenges and successes. Absorbing the business side of medicine as a medical director has been equally eye opening. My role as a hospital epidemiologist and stewardship lead has allowed me to build cherished relationships with several medical specialties and hospital staff. I have to admit that I have also learned from patients and communities who may not always agree with me (with respect to management of Lyme disease and vaccine refusal). Keeping the dialogue open is the key.

All regions of the U.S. are experiencing greater incidence of infective endocarditis attributed to the national opioid epidemic, with young, lower-income, white men being the most affected, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

By 2019, hepatitis C-seronegative patients who underwent kidney transplantation mostly received HCV-viremic donor organs, which demonstrated the same level of function as uninfected kidneys over the course of 1-year follow-up.