A Path to Ending Hepatitis C in Ethiopia: A Phased Public Health Approach to Achieve Micro-Elimination.

A Path to Ending Hepatitis C in Ethiopia: A Phased Public Health Approach to Achieve Micro-Elimination. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2019 Sep 16;: Authors: Taye BW Abstract Ethiopia's hepatitis virus (HCV) prevalence is predicted to rise by 2030. To halt this increasing trend, a suitable approach to the elimination of HCV is needed. This review explores the current status, challenges, and opportunities and outlines a strategy for the micro-elimination approach in Ethiopia. I searched PubMed and EMBASE using combined Medical Subject Heading databases for the literature on HCV micro-elimination. A phased public health approach to HCV micro-elimination, including preparation/capacity building (phase I), implementation (phase II), and rollout and scale-up (phase III), targeting people living with HIV, prisoners, chronic hepatitis and cancer patients, blood donors, and pregnant women is a pragmatic strategy to Ethiopia. This can be implemented at general and tertiary care referral hospitals with a future scale-up to district hospitals through task-shifting by training general practitioners, nurses, laboratory technologists, and pharmacists. Availability of the highly effective direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) can be ensured by expanding the existing program that provides highly subsidized DAAs through an agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. and eventually aiming at domestic generic manufacturing. The significant enablers to HCV micro-elimination in ...
Source: The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene - Category: Tropical Medicine Authors: Tags: Am J Trop Med Hyg Source Type: research