Just had a rather startling visit with a pharmaceutical rep. She laid it on pretty thick.

[Aristus]

50. I don't know if the pharmaceutical companies are still that blatant.

Especially since direct marketing to consumers (which started in the late 90's) does much the same thing.

We tend to treat living through the 1960's as its own risk factor for contracting Hep C. (Drug use and the Sexual Revolution - yeah, it's a stereotype, but we treat it as a risk factor...) And the early tests for the disease only confirmed exposure to the virus, not infection with it. The most common test measures antibodies to Hepatitis C, which confirms exposure. It's possible to clear the virus out of one's system before infection sets in. So nowadays, there's a separate test that measures Hep C RNA. If that one is positive, infection is confirmed without the need for liver biopsy.

Hep C can be asymptomatic for years, which often leads to resistance on the part of the at-risk patient to getting tested.