Federal HCV Testing Guidelines Linked To Increased Screening For Pregnant Women, Research Letter States

Healio (2/26, Welsh) reports, “Despite decreased population-level hepatitis C virus screening in 2020, guidance to test all adults and during every pregnancy was associated with increased HCV screening for pregnant women.” A research letter published in JAMA explained that starting in 2020, “the CDC updated HCV guidelines to screen all adults at least once and to screen women during every pregnancy.” The research determined that “screening rose for pregnant vs. nonpregnant women, with pregnant women tested almost twice as much as before.” Researchers said, “Prenatal care is an opportune time to apply HCV screening guidelines; test people while they are already having prenatal lab work done and follow up to link them to care to treat and cure their HCV.”