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Hepatitis C is a silent disease: most people who have it do not know, because for years it causes no symptoms. The good news, and it is big news, is that hepatitis C can now be cured. With a course of oral antivirals, in most cases over eight to twelve weeks, more than 95 out of every 100 people clear the virus for good.
That is why the message from a decade ago, when we spoke of thousands of Chileans infected and undiagnosed, still holds, but with a hopeful turn: getting tested is no longer just about knowing, it is the doorway to a cure. A single hepatitis C antibody test at least once in your life is enough to learn whether you were ever exposed to the virus.
The cure changed the whole picture
Until a few years ago, treating hepatitis C meant long courses of interferon injections, many side effects and limited success. That is behind us. Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) are pills taken once a day, well tolerated, that cure the infection in the great majority of people, even in those who already have liver damage.
Curing hepatitis C means stopping liver damage, lowering the risk of cirrhosis and liver cancer, and no longer passing the virus to others. It is one of the few chronic diseases we can now clear completely from the body with a short treatment.
So why are people still undiagnosed?
Because hepatitis C rarely announces itself. A person can live twenty or thirty years with the virus feeling nothing, while the liver is quietly damaged. Many people who carry the virus today were infected decades ago and never had a reason to be tested.
Figures for how many people in Chile have hepatitis C are estimates, not an exact count, precisely because a large share of cases go undiagnosed. International models place Chile among the lower-prevalence countries in the region, but even a low prevalence means thousands of people who would benefit from knowing and being treated. The only way to find them is to look actively, with the test.
Who should be tested?
The current recommendation, backed by international guidelines, is that every adult should be tested for hepatitis C at least once in their life, even if they feel healthy and have no obvious risk factors. It is a universal, simple, one-time screen.
You should also repeat or bring forward the test if you:
- Received blood transfusions or had surgery before 1996, when donated blood was not yet screened.
- Have ever used injection drugs, even once.
- Have tattoos or piercings done in unhygienic settings.
- Live with HIV or have a partner with hepatitis C.
- Have unexplained elevated liver enzymes.
You can read in detail how and when to look for the virus on our page about early detection of hepatitis C.
What the test looks like
The evaluation starts with a blood test for hepatitis C antibodies. If it is negative, in most people it rules out infection. If it is positive, it means you were in contact with the virus, and it is confirmed with a second test that measures the virus’s genetic material (viral load, or HCV RNA) to see whether the infection is active today.
A positive result is not the bad news it would have been years ago. Today it is the first step toward a cure.
The goal of eliminating hepatitis C
The World Health Organization set the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. With treatments that cure, the main obstacle is no longer medicine, but finding infected people and connecting them to treatment. Studies show that most countries, Chile included, still diagnose and treat only a small fraction of the people who carry the virus.
That is where every test counts. Getting tested protects you, and it also brings the whole country closer to leaving hepatitis C behind.
What to do today
- If you have never been tested for hepatitis C, ask for it at your next check-up. Once is enough.
- If you have any risk factor, do not wait: talk with your doctor.
- If you have already been diagnosed with hepatitis C and not treated, know that today’s treatment is short, well tolerated and curative.
See also
References
- Polaris Observatory HCV Collaborators. Global change in hepatitis C virus prevalence and cascade of care between 2015 and 2020: a modelling study. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2022;7(5):396-415.
- US Preventive Services Task Force. Screening for Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Adolescents and Adults: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement. JAMA. 2020;323(10):970-975.
- Bhattacharya D, et al. Hepatitis C Guidance 2023 Update: AASLD-IDSA Recommendations for Testing, Managing, and Treating Hepatitis C Virus Infection. Clin Infect Dis. 2023;ciad319.
- Dugan E, et al. Global prevalence of hepatitis C virus in women of childbearing age in 2019: a modelling study. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021;6(3):169-184.
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