Doctors Question Wider Hepatitis C Screening Despite Cures

Doctors should resist the urge to screen a wider group of patients for hepatitis C, a group of physicians said today in the British Medical Journal, despite the introduction of new drugs that can cure the liver disease.

Expanded screening would flag the disease in people who are unlikely to die from it, leading to unnecessary treatment that may itself be harmful, said the group, including Kenneth Lin, an associate professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine.