From ASGE President Karen L. Woods, MD, FASGE:
The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) supports the concerns of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) regarding the recent Cochrane Group Review concluding that there is a lack of valid evidence supporting the benefit of direct acting antiviral (DAA) therapy for chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV).
ASGE believes that access to care and treatment is imperative for patients with HCV. DAA therapy is still relatively new, has shown excellent results in eliminating the virus, and the development of these treatments continues to advance. In addition to clearing the virus, DAA therapy has been demonstrated to improve numerous clinical manifestations of liver disease in patients with HCV. It is not unreasonable to expect that progression of the disease can be halted long-term in patients who respond to DAA therapy, and ASGE agrees it is too soon to say otherwise based on the limited focus of the Cochrane Group Review.
The GI and hepatology communities have a strong mission to treat and eliminate liver disease and its associated health effects. ASGE member physicians treat a wide range of these effects in our patients, and we hope that HCV will be eliminated in the near future. DAA therapy is an important part of the public health strategy for HCV eradication in the U.S., and for individual patients currently affected by the virus.
We urge continued research in this area, and we call for sustained and improved access to these therapies for all patients who need them.