88 she said in an interview in middecemberthis complex set of problems also makes her typical of a large part of the us population with hepatitis c since 2014 when a new generation of drugs provided an effective cure with few side effects more than 840000 people have received treatment overcoming high prices set by drugmakers and restrictions imposed by state governments and insurers that has left chronic hepatitis c infections concentrated in a group of people more likely to be seen in prisons and at syringe exchanges than in traditional hospitals and clinicsdr grande said hepatitis c is common among her patients who inject drugs but curing those patients is not straightforward even in washington state which has dropped all restrictions on access to medications and waived the need to get insurers prior authorizationimagecreditjovelle tamayo for the new york timeslast spring when ms trent first screened positive for previous exposure to hepatitis c on a fingerstick test there was no phlebotomist at the clinic to draw blood for confirmation that she had a chronic infection so she was referred to an outside lab she didnt make it there until august and awaiting those results added another delay then in october ms trent missed an appointment because she was in a drug treatment facility and without a drivers license she constantly struggled to arrange transportationonce somebody manages to make it in the door at our place thats a major accomplishment dr grande said for many patients navigating a complex pathway to treatment entailing multiple return visits over a period of weeks or months can prove insurmountable its just a big barrierautomated molecular tests could compress this process from a small sample of blood or saliva the tests amplify any trace of viral genetic material in a process akin to the older laboratorybased method of polymerase chain reaction or pcr but have been miniaturized to run on small machines the technologies have been around for years but gained greater visibility during the pandemic when the fda allowed many test developers to leapfrog what is traditionally a lengthy approval processcompanies that have developed coronavirus tests of this ilk have seen enormous growth cue health which is the official test provider of the nba and has sold more than 120000 testing platforms reported that annual revenue grew 25fold to more than 600 million during the pandemic ayub khattak the companys cofounder said the streamlined regulatory process was transformative it just broke open the doora similar molecular test for hepatitis c could allow clinicians to deliver a diagnosis immediately and perhaps start many patients on medications the same day an approach known as test and treat patients may then be less likely to transmit the disease to others and more likely to complete treatment and be curedone of the most promising hepatitis c tests was created by cepheid a diagnostic company based in california with a palmsize cartridge preloaded with chemical reagents the test runs on the companys proprietary genexpert machine and can confirm