Hepatitis C: is eradication possible?

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Hepatitis C: is eradication possible? 
Andrea Lombardi Mario U. Mondelli ESCMID Study Group for Viral Hepatitis (ESGVH)

First published: 25 November 2018
https://doi.org/10.1111/liv.14011 

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. 

Please cite this article as doi: 10.1111/liv.14011

Abstract

Hepatitis C has a relevant global impact in terms of morbidity, mortality and economic costs, with more than 70 million people infected worldwide. In the resolution “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” was included as a focus area in the health‐related goal with world leaders pledging to ‘combat’ it by 2030. In response, WHO drafted the Global Viral Hepatitis Strategy carrying the ambitious targets to reduce the number of deaths by two thirds and to increase treatment rates up to 80%. Despite the availability of highly effective therapeutic regimens based on direct acting antivirals many barriers to HCV eradication still remain. They are related to awareness of the infection, linkage to care, availability of the therapeutic drug regimens and reinfection. Overall, if an effective prophylactic vaccine will not be available, HCV eradication appears difficult to achieve in the future....

Key points:
DAA availability increased hope of HCV elimination and WHO defined that as a goal to be achieved by 2030. 

DAAs proved to efficiently eliminate HCV in specific settings/populations, but economical and logistic reasons make extremely difficult to apply this approach globally. 

A therapeutic vaccine is considered essential to reliably target HCV eradication.

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