FROM Clinical microbiology and infection
Elimination of the public health threat posed by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) might seem impossible to achieve by 2030, but researchers in Italy say it can be done.
Important elements of success will include the use of oral direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) and a global commitment to prevention.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization announced plans to wipe out HCV worldwide by 2030 using the time between now and 2021 to reduce the number of annual new infections by 70%, and to slash the fatality rate by 60%. Reliable epidemiologic data on the infection are lacking, but the WHO puts the global prevalence of HCV infection at between 130 and 150 million people. Although most cases remain subclinical, about 700,000 people die annually as a result of their infection, primarily from liver damage.
Success in meeting the WHO challenge will hinge largely on the dramatic scale-up of new oral DAAs, according to Simone Lanini, MD, an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases, Lazzaro Spallanzani-IRCCS, in Rome, and his coauthors. They’ve written a detailed analysis of all available tools and impending obstacles in the global fight against the virus. ]
With clinical trials consistently demonstrating HCV cure rates in excess of 85%, these short-duration oral treatment courses that are optimally tolerated with no absolute contraindications “offer hope,” especially in combination with best practices in primary prevention, wrote Dr. Lanini and his colleagues.
DAAs – combination therapy of nucleotide analogue inhibitors NS5B and NS5A – are viable treatments across all hepatitis C virus genotypes and are indicated for patients regardless of their potential stage of liver disease, or whether they have failed prior treatments.
Access to these therapies, however, remains at issue.
“We have effective treatments in the form of DAAs but, currently, these are neither affordable nor accessible in many low- and middle-income countries,” study coauthor and scientific director at the Institute, Giuseppe Ippolito, MD, said in a statement. “Global pressure will be required to encourage generic competition to reduce the cost of medicines and diagnostics. This could include direct price negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies responsible for DAA manufacture, differential pricing, [or] voluntary licenses.”
Avoiding the spread of infection will be another key to overcoming HCV, particularly in several African nations such as Nigeria and Egypt, and other lower- and middle-income countries like India, where prevention measures such as screening donated blood for viral contamination are sparse. Worldwide, there is a need for better implementation of protocols to avoid unsafe injections, according to the study authors.
There is also a need for global cooperation and sharing of best practices among nations of all income levels to reduce HCV transmission across high-risk populations such as intravenous drug users and prisoners. Because mother-to-infant transmission prevention measures are essentially ineffective, Dr. Lanini and his colleagues said perinatal prevention of HCV infection should be emphasized. Tattoo and other cosmetic procedures including circumcision are also of concern, the authors wrote, particularly in Western Africa.
Controlling an infectious disease is one thing, but eradicating it takes an entirely different level of commitment, according to Dr. Lanini and his colleagues. There must be an effective intervention that disrupts transmission, such as the DAAs and accurate screening and diagnosis. The infection also must occur only in humans. Additionally, there needs to be a widely held belief among leaders at all levels of government that stopping infection is a relevant public concern; prevention and intervention strategies must meet economic constraints; and epidemiologic support – including access to screening and treatment and tracking of infectious cases – must be in place across all regions, the authors wrote.
Given that these criteria are met, a road map for success largely already exists, according to Dr. Ippolito. “[We] can learn from the innovative HIV service delivery approaches that have already been used successfully in marginalized and vulnerable populations across the world,” he said in the statement.
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