Article
Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C
VA Treatment Recommendations (Version 5.0)
Fed Pract. 2003;20(suppl 5):1-33.
Author and Disclosure Information
VA National Hepatitis C Program of the Public Health Strategic Health Care Group: Michael Rigsby, MD (director), Jane Burgess, ACRN, MS, Victoria Davey, RN, MPH, Connie Raab, and Lawrence R. Deyton, MSPH, MD (chief consultant); VA Hepatitis C Resource Centers: Teresa L. Wright, MD, Helen Yee, PharmD, Samuel B. Ho, MD, Guadalupe Garcia-Tsao, MD, and Jason A. Dominitz, MD, MHS; and the VA Hepatitis C Technical Advisory Group: Garth Austin, MD, PhD, Joseph Awad, MD, Edmund Bini, MD, FACP, FACG, Lynn Bradley, PA, Robert Dufour, MD, Judith Feldman, MD, MPH, Katherine P. Frandsen, RN, CIC, Curt Hagedorn, MD, Rhonda Jankovich, RN, BSN, Karen Jones, Linda Jones, MSN-RN, Stephen Kendall, Daniel Kivlahan, PhD, Kathy Lockhart, RN, MSN, MPA, Thomas Mahl, MD, Robert McNamara, Shvawn McPherson-Baker, PhD, Timothy Morgan, MD, Linda Rabeneck, MD, David Rimland, MD, Gary Roselle, MD, Hugo Rosen, MD, Kimberly Summers, PhD, and Michael Valentino, RPh.
Dr. Wright has led development of the treatment recommendations since their inception. She and Dr. Yee are the lead authors of this version.
This supplement to Federal Practitioner contains the fifth version of the VA Treatment Recommendations for Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C. The VA has more experience with hepatitis C than any other U.S. health system. Some 180,000 veterans with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were cared for by the VA in fiscal year 2002.
These recommendations were prepared by experts from the VA's National Hepatitis C Program, Hepatits C Resource Centers, and Hepatitis C Resource Advisory Group. The first version was developed after the 1997 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Development Conference on hepatitis C. This latest version includes the newest FDA-approved HCV therapies and reflects the June 2002 NIH Consensus Statement. The recommendations are the result of an extensive review of published data; CDC recommendations for identifying, counseling, testing, and referring people at risk for HCV infection; and input from thought leaders involved in the care of veterans with HCV infection.