HCV Elimination in Central Europe with Particular Emphasis on Microelimination in Prisons.
Robert Flisiak, Dorota Zarębska-Michaluk, Egle Ciupkeviciene, Sylvia Drazilova, Sona Frankova, Ivica Grgurevic, Bela Hunyady, Peter Jarcuska, Limas Kupčinskas, Michael Makara, Gunita Saulite-Vanaga, Marieta Simonova, Jan Sperl, Ieva Tolmane, Adriana Vince
Journal: Viruses
2022;14(3):482
PMID: 35336889
Abstract
["In 2016, the WHO announced a plan to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. In this narrative review, experts from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia assessed the feasibility of achieving the WHO 2030 target for HCV infections in Central Europe. They focused mainly on HCV micro-elimination in prisons, where the highest incidence of HCV infections is usually observed, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the detection and treatment of HCV infections. According to the presented estimates, almost 400,000 people remain infected with HCV in the analyzed countries. Interferon-free therapies are available ad libitum, but the number of patients treated annually in the last two years has halved compared to 2017-2019, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. None of the countries analyzed had implemented a national HCV screening program or a prison screening program. The main reason is a lack of will at governmental and prison levels. None of the countries analyzed see any chance of meeting the WHO targets for removing viral hepatitis from the public threat list by 2030, unless barriers such as a lack of political will and a lack of screening programs are removed quickly."]
Address:
Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Medical University of Białystok, 15-540 Białystok, Poland.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Jan Kochanowski University, 25-317 Kielce, Poland.; Department of Gastroenterology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, LT50061 Kaunas, Lithuania.; 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, L Pasteur University Hospital and PJ Safarik University, Faculty of Medicine, 04011 Kosice, Slovakia.; Department of Hepatogastroenterology, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, 14021 Prague, Czech Republic.; Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Clinical Nutrition, University of Zagreb, University Hospital Dubrava, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.; Department of Gastroenterolgy, Somogy Megyei Kaposi Mór Oktató Kórház, H7400 Kaposvár, Hungary.; First Department of Internal Medicine, University of Pécs, H7624 Pécs, Hungary.; Central Hospital of Southern Pest National Institute of Hematology and Infectious Diseases, Saint Laszlo Hospital, 5-7. Albert Florian Street, H1097 Budapest, Hungary.; Out-Patient Department, Riga East University Hospital, Latvian Center of Infectious Diseases, LV1013 Riga, Latvia.; Department of HPB Surgery and Transplantology, Clinic of Gastroenterology, Military Medical Academy, 1606 Sofia, Bulgaria.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Medical School University of Zagreb, University Hospital of Infectious Diseases, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
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