UC San Diego

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is a flavivirus that can cause both acute and chronic infections which, if untreated, can progressively lead to liver damage, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). With the recent opioid epidemic in the US, there has been an increase in cases of HCV in both the adult and adolescent populations. This has resulted in an increase in HCV infections in women of childbearing age, and mother-to-child transmission occurs in 2-7% of pregnancies in women who are HCV-infected. Approximately 40% of children with chronic HCV infection are expected to clear the virus, and the remainder will develop a chronic infection that will persist into adulthood if untreated 3. The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) currently recommends Direct-Acting Antivirals (DAAs) to treat chronic HCV infection for all children 3 years of age and older, which cures >90% of individuals. However current risk-based screening strategies among children born to mothers with HCV are inadequate in identifying the majority of children born with HCV. We assessed the cost-effectiveness analysis of universal HCV screening among children at age 2 compared to the status quo- risk-based screening in the U.S.