STAT April 17, 2024
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, viral hepatitis killed more people in the United States than all 60 other reportable infectious diseases combined, including HIV, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. Which doesn’t really make sense, since effective vaccines are available for hepatitis A and B, there are successful therapies for hepatitis B, and there’s a treatment that can cure hepatitis C.
By all accounts, the U.S. should be able to eliminate viral hepatitis, but instead new cases are on the rise, largely due to the opioid epidemic and increasing viral hepatitis transmission through injection drug use.
What’s stopping the country from tackling this deadly public health threat?
To fight infectious diseases, public health departments conduct what’s known as surveillance — the practice of collecting...
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