all other reportable infectious diseases combined, the researchers said.
They found that, of an estimated 2.7 million people in the United States with hepatitis C, just 55 percent know they are infected, largely because the disease is mostly symptomless and there is a lack of routine screening.
As a result, many people with hepatitis C don’t receive highly effective cures that can eliminate the virus and prevent liver disease, cirrhosis and liver cancer.
The data was released Tuesday at the World Hepatitis Summit in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“The fact is that even when people are diagnosed, they are not being referred and often don’t get treated,” researcher Homie Razavi said in a news release about the summit.
“There are many possible reasons for patients not accessing treatment,” he said. They include the fact that…