Enlightening article from Roll Call: “Deadly liver disease, rooted out elsewhere, retains grip on US“.
Summary:
- Breakthrough cure exists—but isn’t reaching enough Americans.
Hepatitis C can now be cured with short-course antiviral pills that work in over 95% of cases, representing a major medical success. - The U.S. is falling behind other countries.
Nations like England and Australia are on track to eliminate hepatitis C by 2030, and Egypt has already done so, but the U.S. is lagging. - Large numbers remain untreated.
Despite effective treatment, hundreds of thousands of Americans still have untreated hepatitis C, leading to ongoing illness and thousands of preventable deaths each year. - System-level barriers are the main problem.
The failure isn’t scientific—it’s structural:- Fragmented U.S. healthcare system
- Insufficient funding and coordinated national strategy
- Patients “falling through the cracks” (per former NIH director Francis Collins)
- Public health implications are significant.
Hepatitis C remains the most common blood-borne infection in the U.S., and the country’s slow progress means avoidable morbidity and mortality persist.
Bottom line
The article argues that the U.S. has the tools to eliminate hepatitis C—but unlike other countries, it hasn’t built the coordinated public health infrastructure to actually do it. The result is a preventable, ongoing burden of liver disease and death.