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Nearly 90 percent of Colorado residents infected with hepatitis C, now the deadliest infectious disease in the United States, are going untreated, a new report estimates.
The Colorado study, released Wednesday, suggested two reasons why:
• Many are baby boomers who contracted the blood disease decades ago through transfusions and don’t know they have it.
• Others have not sought treatment because the new drugs that can cure it are extraordinarily expensive. The drug Sovaldi, for one, can cost $84,000 for a 12-week course of treatment.
Officials estimate at least 70,000 Coloradans have the disease.
The Center for Improving Value in Health Care analyzed data from the Colorado All Payer Claims Database for commercially insured patients to estimate the untreated percentage of hepatitis C carriers.
“When we looked at claims information for insured Coloradans, we were surprised to learn how many patients are not getting treatment for this serious, potentially life-threatening infection,” said Ana English, the center’s president.
Because the disease is curable now, she said, “it’s incumbent upon us as a state to increase access to affordable treatment.”
The Colorado study follows a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report this month that hepatitis C now kills more people than any other infectious disease, including HIV/AIDS.