Abstract for: Modeling Hepatitis C for Targeted Screening and Cost-Effectiveness in the US

Nearly four million people live with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the United States (US), and the majority of them are not aware of their disease. Despite the availability of effective HCV treatment in the early stages of infection, HCV will result in thousands of deaths in the next decade in the US. Objectives. To investigate the cost-effectiveness of universal screening for HCV in the US and cost-effectiveness of targeted screening of people who inject drugs. Results showed that HCV screening for people who inject drugs in the United States is cost-effective. For this high-risk population, screening and treatment for HCV are predicted to increase total costs by $10,457 per person and increase life-years by 0.23, providing an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICEPR) of $45,465 per life-year. However, universal screening of the total US population was not cost-effective.