Baby boomer

USPSTF Recommends Hepatitis C Screening for High-Risk Adults, Baby Boomers.

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High-risk adults, including injection drug users and those who received blood transfusions before 1992, should be screened for hepatitis C virus, according to new guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in the Annals of Internal Medicine. In addition, adults born from 1945 through 1965 (so-called baby boomers) should undergo one-time screening.

The USPSTF says anti-HCV antibody testing, followed by confirmatory polymerase chain reaction, is accurate for detection.

The guidance is an update from the task force’s 2004 statement, which found insufficient evidence for or against screening in high-risk patients. The CDC has recommended screening for high-risk adults since 1998, and recommended one-time screening for baby boomers last year.

Editorialists write: “The independently derived yet similar recommendations for HCV testing from the USPSTF and CDC send a clear signal to health care professionals … that screening for HCV is effective.”

Source: Annals of Internal Medicine 

Hepatitis C Screening: USPSTF Readies New Recommendations.

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The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is about to update its 2004 recommendations on screening for hepatitis C. Evidence reviews on screening adults, reducing mother-to-infant transmission, and antiviral treatments are available in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The 2004 statement recommended against routine screening in adults not at increased risk and found no evidence for or against screening those at high risk.

The USPSTF’s evidence review on adult screening points out that the CDC‘s recent recommendation to screen all baby-boomers was based on cost-effectiveness analyses and that information on the clinical outcomes of such strategies is needed. Targeting screening of high-risk patients will miss some patients with infection, they observe.

The review on preventing mother-child transmission finds that no intervention has been shown to reduce risk — including the avoidance of breast-feeding.

Also included is a systematic review on antiviral treatments.

 

CDC: All Baby Boomers Should Undergo One-Time Screening for Hepatitis C .

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The CDC is recommending one-time testing for hepatitis C in patients born between 1945 and 1965, regardless of the patients’ risk for hepatitis, according to finalized guidelines published in MMWR.

Patients who test positive for hepatitis C should receive alcohol screening, and intervention if necessary, as well as referral for treatment of hepatitis C and any related conditions.

A CDC review found that hepatitis C mortality increased significantly from 1999 to 2007. Nearly three quarters of these deaths occurred in baby boomers. In addition, an NHANES study found a 3.25% prevalence in this age group.

Source: MMWR