To quantify the benefit of hepatitis C virus treatments to society, including the value of reduced transmission, Van Nuys, Brookmeyer, Chou, Goldman, and colleagues estimated the effects of several hepatitis C treatment strategies on cost and population health. Treating patients at all disease stages could generate $610–$1,221 billion in additional quality-adjusted life-years, plus an additional $139 billion in saved medical expenditures over 50 years, and minimize the disease burden, but up-front treatment costs would exceed $150 billion. An intermediate scenario—treating 5 percent of the infected population annually, regardless of patients’ disease stages—would also return substantial benefits and would be much more affordable under current financing schemes.
The full study is available at Health Affairs. A press release is available here.
Citation: Van Nuys, K., Brookmeyer, R., Chou, J. W., Dreyfus, D., Dieterich, D., & Goldman, D. P. (2015). Broad Hepatitis C Treatment Scenarios Return Substantial Health Gains, but Capacity Is a Concern. Health Affairs.