HCMSG - Hepatitis C Mentor & Support Group, Inc.
Search
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • Board of Directors
    • Medical Advisors
  • Resources
    • Corona Virus
    • Hep C Facts & Stats
    • Medications and Treatments >
      • Patient Assistance Programs
    • Reading
    • Links
  • Programs/Training
    • The Circle Model >
      • THE CIRCLE Registration
      • Group and Facilitator Guide
    • Hepatitis C Online Training
    • The Hepatitis C Education and Support Group Assistance Program
    • Healthcare Provider Training
  • Newsletter
  • Blog
  • Support Us
    • Holiday 2020
  • Contact Us

United States Falling Behind Other Countries Eliminating Hepatitis C

11/22/2017

0 Comments

 
​
Gail Connor Roche
Publish Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Nine countries are on track to eliminate the hepatitis C virus (HCV) by 2030, current estimates from the Polaris Observatory show.
           
Australia, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands, and Qatar are all set to wipe out the liver-attacking disease by the World Health Organization’s target date, according to the Lafayette, Colorado-based Polaris.
           
“Countries like Australia, Egypt and the Republic of Georgia have made the elimination of HCV a political priority and have allocated the resources to make it happen,” Michael Ninburg, MPA, president-elect of the World Hepatitis Alliance, told MD Magazine.
           
Based on current policies, the US is 1 of 22 nations including Spain, the UK, Canada and Iran that are "working towards" HCV elimination.           

For China, Russia, India, and some 5 dozen other countries, the 2030 goal is unachievable given existing policies, Homie Razavi, PhD, MBA, told MD Magazine. Razavi is managing director of the CDA Foundation, which oversees Polaris’s mission of supplying data, training and analytics to end viral hepatitis.

Treating more than 7% of the HCV infected population with no restrictions, working on harm reduction, and screening patients are key requirements for reaching the 2030 target, Razavi said.
           
“The US is already treating more than 7% of the infected population, but it needs to remove restrictions so that therapies are available to all — independent of fibrosis stage,” Razavi said.
           
Brazil, which hosted the World Hepatitis Summit in Sao Paulo from November 1 to 3, will appear on the “on track” list in 2018, he said. The country has pledged to open access to everyone next year, screen the whole population, and treat 100,000 patients per year.
             
“Brazil did announce at the WHS that they will do everything above in 2018 and they will be on the Polaris list next year,” Razavi said.
           
Australia, 1 of the 9 countries already on track to attain the 2030 target, has been at the forefront of HCV elimination efforts.

The country was among the first to subsidize new HCV medicines, making a range of direct acting antiviral (DAA) drugs available starting on March 1, 2016.

In August 2017, the government announced it would subsidize Gilead Sciences’s Epclusa (sofosbuvir/velpatasvir).

Australia treated 32,400 of its chronic HCV patients (14%) in 2016, Greg Dore, head of the Viral Hepatitis Clinical Research Program at the Kirby Institute in Sydney, told MD Magazine in August.

A Kirby report released earlier this year estimated that Australia is set to eliminate HCV by 2026 — 4 years earlier than the WHO’s goal.

The WHO targets include a 90% reduction of new hepatitis B (HBV) and HCV infections and a 65% reduction in mortality related to hepatitis by 2030.  The organization set these goals in 2016.

The United States is not among the “on track” countries because the combination of baby boomer and risk-based screening isn't working, Ninburg said. The CDC recommends that the baby boomer generation born from 1945 to 1965 be screened, but that may not be adequate, Ninburg said.

  TO CONTINUE READING-  https://www.specialtypharmacytimes.com/news/united-states-falling-behind-other-countries-eliminating          
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Privacy Policy