Q&A With Robert S. Brown Jr. From Weill Cornell Medical College: Screening Testing and Treatment of Hepatitis C
Patients with hepatitis C can go years without having any idea of their condition. Identifying these patients and getting them the treatment they need has become a growing focus in the medical community over the past several years.
Screening patients for hepatitis C has come a long way in recent years but there is more that doctors can do to check for the diagnosis for patients of all ages.
Testing for hepatitis C can tell doctors not only whether their patients have the condition or not, but also which genotype of the condition they have. That information can direct where the treatment goes and the likelihood of how successful it will be.
Once a patient has tested positive for hepatitis C the question then becomes which of the six genotypes and sub-genotypes do they have. Answering that question will determine what the next steps in care will be.
While genotype is one of the overriding factors in determining course of treatment for patients with hepatitis C there are other areas to consider as well. This can include other health conditions they are being treated for, potential drug use, and other medications they are taking as well.
See Part 2 Here
