The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force posted a draft research plan on screening for hepatitis C virus infection in adolescents and adults. The draft research plan is available for review and public comment through October 18, 2017.

Public comment means that anyone can participate. The people who are most likely to comment are hepatitis C shareholders. In case you are wondering what a hepatitis C shareholder is, you are one if you have any interest in any aspect of hepatitis C. This includes patients, community members, advocates, healthcare professionals, harm reduction specialists, public health people, and drug and testing manufacturers.

If you are reading this blog, you are most likely a hepatitis C shareholder. I strongly encourage you to review and comment on the plan. I will confess that I found the plan a bit confusing, so I concentrated on leaving comments. For instance, the first algorithm was confusing, so I wrote, “The intention of this framework is not completely clear to me. If the proposal is to research the feasibility of providing HCV screening to asymptomatic, pregnant and nonpregnant teens and adults, I am in complete agreement.”

I recommend that you copy and paste your comments in a draft document, because I got an error message and had to redo my comments. Because I kept a copy, I could paste them right into the fields.

To review the draft research plan and submit comments, go to https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/ResearchPlanDraft/hepatitis-c-screening1

Thank you for caring.