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England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

453 pointsby stevekemptoday at 12:41 PM327 commentsview on HN

Comments

thex10today at 2:04 PM

I am glad they’re screening for it. I was born to someone who had the virus, but didn’t know I had Hep C myself until I submitted myself to an exceptionally thorough STI testing panel. I say exceptional, because the standard ones I’d done throughout college and early adulthood do not happen to include that particular test. So I feel a bit lucky to have been able to get diagnosed and treated in my mid-20s, before the disease could do much damage.

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geophiletoday at 2:46 PM

Meanwhile, the USA is bringing back measles, mumps, rubella, Hep B, and lots of intestinal parasites. Back to the Future! MAGA!

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alistairSHtoday at 1:30 PM

Interesting that it's just England (and not Scotland, Wales, or NI). I realize they all have independent NHSs, but still would assume a program like this would rolled out across all the constituent countries.

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lebuffontoday at 3:11 PM

Makes me wonder if this project is the reason for a slight downturn in Liver cancer from 2019 forward in the UK.

https://crukcancerintelligence.shinyapps.io/CancerStatsDataH...

GuB-42today at 4:10 PM

I guess someone complained about memory safety and they intend to rewrite hepatitis in Rust.

Not everything has to be rewritten in Rust! Hepatitis is a virus, C is much better suited for that kind of project, Rust is for fungal diseases, not viruses.

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renegade-ottertoday at 1:34 PM

Good for you. We get explosive diarrhea as the prize in the States. Wanna trade?

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cayceptoday at 9:18 PM

the other side of this is the science behind the NS5B protein and the meds behind the new hep c cures. This is pretty fascinating stuff. In medicine, it's not often we see a cure like this.

fkozlowskitoday at 8:03 PM

I've always found it a bit surprising that we don't all celebrate smallpox elimination day. I think it'd be a great reminder of the victories that humanity has had against the four horsemen.

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dabinattoday at 6:52 PM

> Around 50,200 adults are living with hepatitis C, figures for England in 2024 suggest.

> Estimates indicate 84.6% of those living with hepatitis C have been diagnosed - just short of the 90% target.

How do they know there are that many Hep C patients if they haven’t been diagnosed?

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AdmiralAsshattoday at 3:28 PM

Introducing: Hepatitis C++

msarreltoday at 6:46 PM

What a funny headline. It has virtually nothing to do with the actual content of the article.

mallory854today at 6:20 PM

This is great news. Healthcare is such an asset in our pockets.

pyuser583today at 3:38 PM

For a second, I thought Hepatitis C was some 1980s C dialect that had memory safety issues.

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b800htoday at 2:35 PM

We eliminated TB too. Then it came back.

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ghastmastertoday at 2:46 PM

Second paraggraph:

> The target of treating 80% of all known cases has already been met, and deaths from the virus have fallen by 36% in the last decade, just short of what is needed by 2030.

What is needed by 2030? There is no mention prior to this statement.

Later:

> NHS England says that since 2015, more than 100,000 people have been diagnosed and treated for hepatitis C, meaning the country is already meeting that target.

Again, what target are we talking about??

Much later:

> Prof Frankie Swords, NHS national medical director, added: "England is now leading the world in the mission to eliminate this disease and on course to beat the WHO's 2030 target, but we are determined to keep up the momentum and finish the job.

Finally a target!

FUCK AI

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pyuser583today at 3:53 PM

Wait is England a country or nation?

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Cockbrandtoday at 1:50 PM

So will it be replaced by Hepatitis Rust for memory safety? (I'm sorry, and I'll see myself out, thanks)

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ck2today at 1:59 PM

How can there not be a single sentence in that article HOW IS IT TREATED

If it requires a vaccine you can be sure HEP C will be kept alive and well via MAHA in the US

okay here is a much better article

* https://www.england.nhs.uk/2026/08/100000-people-receive-tre...

> "Treatment involves a free course of antiviral tablets lasting 8 to 12 weeks, which cures more than 95% of cases."

must be nice to have a government that actually cares about its citizens health, we're still waiting DECADES for that Republican health care plan (other than "just die quietly")

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nipunaeka89today at 2:13 PM

[dead]

fuckyahtoday at 3:50 PM

[dead]

hn5595p698today at 5:32 PM

[dead]

jmclnxtoday at 1:23 PM

[flagged]

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jiaosdjftoday at 2:44 PM

[flagged]

claudextoday at 2:14 PM

Now everyone is migrating to hepatitis Rust

iLoveOncalltoday at 1:33 PM

Literally nothing in the article points to it being eliminated, only reaching a target of diagnosing 90% of the cases, which doesn't do anything to eliminate it when a large number of cases comes from drug users which are unlikely to care very much about it.

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shevy-javatoday at 1:55 PM

The title shows a lack of understanding. BBC has become really low quality.

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kandrostoday at 1:34 PM

My brain kept reading Erlang and I was pretty confusing

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zelphirkalttoday at 1:35 PM

Just to understand this: When someone says "country England", do they mean "country" like in "nation", considering England a separate nation, or is it a lapse and they mean UK? Is England usually referred to as a country, or just part of a country?

I usually think of a country as equal to a nation, and as far as I know, Wales and Scotland have not split off yet? Is the term "country" not actually that sharply defined?

EDIT: Thanks people, I just asked a question to better understand the terminology, you know ...

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