Viral Hepatitis News

The CDC has updated its guidance for hepatitis B testing for the first time since 2008 and now recommends that all adults in the U.S. be tested for HBV at least once in their lifetime.

Hepatitis C reinfection rates were high among a population of people who had experienced homelessness but increased even more among those experiencing homelessness at the time of treatment, researchers found.

SEATTLE — The effort to find a cure for hepatitis B faces steep challenges, Anna Suk-Fong Lok, MD, told Healio after her plenary presentation at the Conference for Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

Despite some progress being made, sub-Saharan Africa remained a hot spot for new HIV infections, with approximately 689,000 new infections annually among HIV-negative adults between 2015 and 2019, according to data pooled from 15 countries.

Testing for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C increased among U.S. Medicaid enrollees initiating treatment for opioid use disorder. However, a recent study showed approximately three-quarters of enrollees were not tested for each condition.

People with hepatitis C, either treated or untreated, had an increased risk for developing active tuberculosis, according to data published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Despite indications for PrEP being prevalent among people with hepatitis C, most patients were unaware of PrEP, had never been offered PrEP and were not using PrEP, researchers found.

The use of oral tenofovir-based PrEP for HIV prevention in hepatitis B-endemic countries and in high-risk populations could “markedly decrease” the number of HIV and HBV coinfections, researchers found in a review.

New data from a CDC Vital Signs report show that less than one-third of people with hepatitis C receive treatment within 1 year of their diagnosis despite the availability of direct-acting antivirals.