HCV Health Policy Developments in Response to the National Viral Hepatitis Action Plan: A Brief Update

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) kills 366,000 people worldwide and 17,000 people in the United States each year. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a national viral hepatitis action plan to control and combat HCV in the United States. This article provides a brief update of HCV health policy developments that have emerged since publication of HHS's national viral hepatitis action plan and concludes with a discussion of the public health impact of these recent HCV health policy developments.

Keywords::

• Hepatitis C
• health policy
• testing

Funding

Dr. Sims discloses research support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). For the remaining authors there are no conflicts of interest.