With the recent pandemic wave damaging the livelihood of many people worldwide, there has also been a steady decline in hepatitis testing and other general health checkups. Clinical tests are quite crucial if one wants to keep track of their physical and sexual health. If a citizen in an area is coexisting with other people with the hepatitis virus, the chances of their condition getting worse is higher if they’re not tested. Constant hepatitis testing is detrimental to updating statistics and data related to this sexually transmitted disease. Studies also report that there may be more unrecorded hepatitis patients with positive cases since testing has gone down drastically.
Since hepatitis is one of the most common diseases transmitted sexually, it affects many people’s daily lives. There are more than two million people with hepatitis living in the United States alone. And in 2018, the disease was responsible for more than 13,500 deaths. Reports also state that seventy percent of adults with hepatitis may generate persistent infection if not treated on time. This also increases the mortality rate in adults with the disease.
During the last five years, only a fragment of people infected with hepatitis was informed that they had the disease, creating a lapse in general healthcare. To help decrease the mortality rates within sexually transmitted infections, mandatory screenings were deemed as necessary. These screenings will also help detect the diseases early, eventually leading to lesser deaths.
In the last decade, the CDC suggested a hepatitis antibody test for people born in the 1940s to 60s. Also, in the previous decade, the US government implemented mandatory tests in people at high risk for infection, drug users, for example. In recent years, there has been an alarming rise of hepatitis amongst people aged 18-25. That’s why the Center for Disease Control and Prevention strongly recommends hepatitis screening for both young adults and the older generation. The CDC states that every individual should be tested for all types of hepatitis at least once during their life.
Thanks to modern medicine and technology, a well-founded and functional treatment for the disease is accessible, known as the DAA treatment. But to be a part of the treatment, one first has to get tested, until which we won’t know the result or where we stand.
During the recent pandemic wave, general healthcare was affected since everyone was focused on the global virus. With that taking place, testing for hepatitis was greatly reduced, and more cases began to rise., especially during 2020. With improper access to diagnostic tests and treatment, more patients were left to consult their local doctors only, where they may have had lesser knowledge about the disease.
Large diagnostic centers and labs in the USA provided test result data for hepatitis from 2018 to 2020. The names were anonymous, but the centers disclosed the gender and ages. The center utilized all the positive samples for hepatitis to study the infection through an RNA and antibody testing procedure. Over the last few months, the positive samples were further forwarded to the RNA testing method. Assessing the damage caused by hepatitis, especially in the previous few months were carried out. Extensive research and extraction of data also took place all over major pharmaceutical outlets and health centers.
The centers further tested all the results for divergence that may have happened during this period. All these test results where analytics were involved showed a drastic decline in testing for all age groups. Patients aged between 35-75 saw a 4.0% decrease in both antibody and RNA testing. The percentage may seem insignificant on paper, but it includes millions of patients who suffer from this disease.
The weekly testing levels reached their bottom during 2020, where the numbers dropped from 72% to 65% for all age groups.
Many testing centers in America have seen a steady decline in testing while the cases increase by the day. This can lead to morbidity and increased deaths over time. The numbers have still been subsequently diminished to levels well below normal. Testing rates are still below average during 2021, where scientists fear an outbreak if these numbers are not improving. Nationwide testing in hospitals dropped to 48%.
Patients or people exposed to the disease are pretty vulnerable to long-term risks if they’re not treated immediately. It also increases the risk of suffering from other health-related issues as the years go by. Even though there could be delays in different types of testing, the CDC highly recommends that every person of legal age get tested eventually. This is not the case every time, as testing generally takes place rather quickly. The results also come out quicker than tests for other diseases. So faster testing being done means the necessary treatment can ensue.
During recent observations, lab tests are more focused on the millennial generation. This is a good sign since younger people are more exposed to sexually transmitted diseases. It also raises awareness in the vulnerable age groups. However, as the numbers and data suggest, positive cases are higher than compared to the tests being done. There are many types of limitations that people all over the world are experiencing right now. The numbers for hepatitis testing could keep on dipping until small steps are taken to turn the numbers around.
There are estimated to be more than 2.5 million people in the United States with hepatitis C and around 850,000 people with hepatitis B. The numbers for positive hepatitis cases in 2019 were 18,846 and around 37,000 estimated infections.
More than half the people living with this disease usually don’t know that they are infected. This puts the people around them at an even higher risk. That’s why the chances of transmission are high and very dangerous. Millennials make up nearly half of the statistical data for hepatitis cases in the country. With STD clinics reporting that positive rates are becoming five times higher since 2018, testing has become quite a vital factor in the safekeeping of one’s physical and sexual health.
