Universal screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) among pregnant women in the US is cost effective and should be recommended nationally, a recent study suggests. Researchers used an HCV natural history Markov model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of universal HCV screening of pregnant women followed by treatment after pregnancy compared to background risk-based screening. They found:

• Universal antenatal screening was cost-effective in all treatment eligibility scenarios.
• Screening remained cost-effective at 0.07% prevalence.
• Screening the ~5.04 million pregnant women in 2018 could result in detection and treatment of 33,000 women based on current fibrosis restrictions.