VIDEO: HCV epidemiology studies highlight challenges of meeting WHO elimination goals

Two epidemiological studies presented at The Digital Liver Meeting Experience revealed the work left in achieving elimination goals in hepatitis C virus.

“These two oral presentations ... are really important studies to help us understand where we are on the path to elimination as it relates to the WHO goals that were set,” Susanna Naggie, MD, from Duke University, said in an interview with Healio. “We have many countries that are behind and some of those countries may be behind for different reasons. ... This is a significant challenge that without appropriate attention as well as funding to address these deficits, it is unlikely we will see the majority of countries meet HCV elimination targets.”

In a US-based feasibility study, researchers found that no states would meet elimination goals by 2030 as they are currently set, though Naggie said those may change going forward with universal screening.

The second global study of mortality suggested that the majority of countries are not on track to decrease mortality by 65% as WHO aims to do.

“It’s about really pushing universal testing, insuring that we are perfectly diagnosing, really pushing access to treatment and thinking about some of the strategies that we heard about throughout the meeting for simplified approaches to treatment and/or treatments that target very high-risk populations to really get control over this epidemic,” Naggie said. “We still have a lot of work to do. These were sobering presentations for us to understand there is a lot of work that needs to be done.”