HCV Awareness

Julio Gutierrez, MD, transplant hepatologist at Scripps Center for Organ and Cell Transplantation, discussed:

• The “rapidly evolving” field of HCV and the rise of new direct-acting antivirals (DAAs);
• Decreases in screening, increases in treatment using telemedicine tools and other ways the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted HCV elimination goals;
• Health equity in the care of patients with HCV in the interferon era vs. the DAA era;
• Financial and insurance aspects of HCV treatment;
• Challenges and solutions to treatment access for patients, especially Medicaid patients;
• The importance of HCC surveillance after hepatitis C cure;
• What awareness means to providers, patients and everybody in the HCV community;
• Colocalization: an “exciting evolution of hep C treatment;" and
• Greatest areas of unmet need: access to therapy, prevention of future HCV infections, screening, better linkage to care and surveillance of reinfection – “everybody needs to learn to screen and treat where they find the patients.”