Key ethical dilemmas may exist in the access and delivery of hepatitis C virus (HCV) therapy, and some may be in response to or in conflict with current guidelines, a new study suggests. An omnibus survey by the Council of Academic Family Medicine’s Educational Research Alliance was administered to 452 and completed by 273 US-based family medicine program directors (PDs) and gauged attitudes and opinions regarding ethical dilemmas in patient access to HCV treatment. Researchers found:

• 64% of respondents believed that treatment should be an option for all patients regardless of cost.
• 41% believed that is was unethical to deny treatment based on past or current substance use, and 38% believed treatment should be offered to patients who were substance abusers.
• Moral distress was reported by 61% of participants when they were unable to offer treatment to patients due to the patient’s failure to meet eligibility criteria.