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Letters Screening for hepatitis C

Screening and treatment for hepatitis C: a balanced perspective

BMJ 2015; 350 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h644 (Published 24 February 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h644
  1. Philippa C Matthews, National Institute for Health Research academic clinical lecturer in infectious diseases1,
  2. Katie Jeffery, consultant virologist2,
  3. Paul Klenerman, professor of immunology3,
  4. Eleanor Barnes, Medical Research Council senior clinical fellow and consultant in hepatology4,
  5. Graham Cooke, senior clinical lecturer in infectious diseases5
  1. 1Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3SY, UK
  2. 2Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
  3. 3NIHR Biomedical Research Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
  4. 4STOP-HCV Consortium, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  5. 5Wright-Fleming Institute, Imperial College, London, UK
  1. p.matthews{at}doctors.org.uk

Koretz and colleagues proposed a randomised trial of hepatitis C (HCV) screening on the basis of a selective literature review.1 We offer a contrasting view based on four key points:

  • Studies of the natural course of HCV—Koretz and colleagues state that “natural course is best determined by following an entire cohort determined at the time of infection.” This is impractical—the point of acute HCV infection can …

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