I am glad they’re screening for it. I was born to someone who had the virus, but didn’t know I had Hep C myself until I submitted myself to an exceptionally thorough STI testing panel. I say exceptional, because the standard ones I’d done throughout college and early adulthood do not happen to include that particular test. So I feel a bit lucky to have been able to get diagnosed and treated in my mid-20s, before the disease could do much damage.

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nly an hour ago | parent [-]

That's odd. I just looked at what I thought was a pretty standard piss and blood STI test results of my own, and it covered:

- Syphilis

- Hep B

- Hep C

- HIV 1 and 2 and P24

- Chlamydia

- Gonorrhoea

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thex10 an hour ago | parent [-]

I forgot to mention my experience was in the northeastern USA in the 2000s-2010s. I’m happy you got a better standard of care than I did!

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Aurornis an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Hep C screening at least once for adults >= 18 is recommended and considered standard of care in the United States. I checked my medical records and I have a negative Hep C result in an old checkup when I was younger, and another one from a new provider who insisted on a big panel of standard testing for new patients (despite me having no risk factors).

It’s unfortunate that your early providers dropped the ball. I wonder if they assumed you had already been tested for some reason?

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nly 17 minutes ago | parent [-]

Crazy how different healthcare is in different countries.

In the UK once you've had your childhood vaccinations it's entirely possible you'd simply never see a doctor again in your life until you're ready for your prostate exam in older life.

There are no regular checkups or preventative care on the NHS for mid life adults unless you're proactive

	▲	frereubu 2 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I presume you're not a woman, because there's cervical screening for women aged 25-64 every five years. Also depends on what you mean by "mid life", but there's breast screening offered to women aged 50-70 and bowel cancer screening offered to people from 50 to 74 every two years. There are real trade-offs with screening, and screening too much has harms as well as too little, although I'm not qualified to make a judgement on where that line sits relative to where it is in the UK.
	▲	basisword 6 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		To be fair, almost nobody is going from childhood vaccinations > late-middle age without seeing a doctor. And when you do go with an ailment general blood tests seem pretty standard these days at GP's along with standard vitals checks. They also do preventive care where necessary. Every woman is invited for cervical screening once they turn 25 and then every few years until they're in their 60's. Regular mammograms are also a thing after a certain age/depending on risk factors. Bowel cancer screening too. STI testing is free and, depending on where you live, done by post. Also depending on your definition of 'childhood' there are a few vaccines given when you're a teenager (HPV for example). And if you ever travel you'll be visiting the doctor for vaccines then too.

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nly an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Ah OK, this was in London