New Drug For Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C already leads to a fair number of Social Security disability claims. There has been reason to believe that Hepatitis C will become vastly more costly for Social Security in coming years since the disease has spread rapidly since it was first discovered 17 years ago. The disease has a long latency period. There may be four million infected people in the United States. Many have no idea that they have a disease that is likely to debilitate them before killing them. Current treatment for Hepatitis C often causes intolerable side effects and is usually ineffective anyway.

Viropharma has announced an experimental drug that it says cut Hepatitis C viral levels by 97% in only 14 days. Only a small scale human study has been done so far. If this holds up, it would be a major public health development and could prevent a big rise in Social Security disability costs.