Reply.

Murayama and colleagues question financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) of authors as well as level of evidence for recommendations in the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) / Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Hepatitis C (HCV) guidance. The inaugural AASLD / IDSA HCV writing panel was selected in 2013, in consultation with the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to provide guidance in a time of rapidly evolving treatment algorithms. Today, the guidance remains an essential online tool for HCV providers and has been referenced over 3.9 million times since inception. The AASLD and IDSA maintain strong endorsement of the HCV guidance and wish to express disagreement with the Murayama correspondence, which interprets data out of context, leading to unsubstantiated conclusions.