WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ — The American Association
for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and the Trust for America’s
Health (TFAH) issued a new report today calling for action to be
taken to transform how the country deals with viral hepatitis
– to help identify millions of Americans who know they are
living with chronic forms of hepatitis B and C and to assure access
to treatment for all who need it, to prevent even more Americans
from becoming infected.
“This report is a critical next step that builds on a recent
groundbreaking Institute of Medicine report on viral hepatitis and
translates it into a series of action items which will be
critically important to control the silent epidemic of viral
hepatitis in the US,” said Arun J Sanyal MD, President of
AASLD.
The report, HBV & HCV: America’s Hidden Epidemics,
examines how new measures included in the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (ACA) combined with new scientific advancements
could be used to spare millions of Americans from developing
cirrhosis, liver cancer, or other life threatening complications as
they age – which could also lead to billions of dollars in
health care savings.
“HBV and HCV are ticking time bombs. If we don’t act now
to diagnose the millions of Baby Boomers and others, we’ll be too
late to spare them from developing serious liver diseases.
We’ll all end up paying the price, since Medicare and
Medicaid will end up picking up the tab for much of the care,” said
Jeff Levi, PhD., Executive Director of TFAH. “Health reform
and new science give us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to
rethink how we deal with these silent killers.”
Some key findings in the report include that:
- An estimated 65 to 75 percent of the five million Americans
currently infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C
virus (HCV) do not even know they have the virus; &#‘/>”/>
