The Alliance to Eliminate Viral Hepatitis in Spain (Aehve), which brings together scientific and patient associations dedicated to the elimination of hepatitis C, has asked the Spanish government to make a “last ditch effort” to “eliminate this public health problem.”
The latest efforts, he said, include extending age-based opportunistic screening to all autonomous regions and “having local entities actively look for cases among people who normally don’t have access to the health system.”
As it celebrates the European Testing Week (20-27 November), which aims to promote joint screening for HIV and viral hepatitis, Aehve believes that “Spain has what it takes to become the first country in the world that meets all the criteria” WHO has set goals for the elimination of hepatitis C, but we need to take the final steps,” said Javier García-Samaniego, coordinator of the entity and director of the Department of Hepatology at the University of La Paz in Madrid. express.
Regarding opportunistic screening, the Aehve coordinator mentioned the experience being developed in Galicia, which is a pioneer in the diagnostic analysis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) through sample pooling (PCR), also known as pooling, health status Good results and considerable financial savings.
“This innovation is very important because it significantly reduces the possibility of expanding opportunistic screening strategies by age, as professionals have been asking for many years,” explains Dr. García-Samaniego. Currently, apart from Galicia, only A few autonomous regions, such as Cantabria and Andalusia, are considering opportunistic screening by age, and Aehve estimates that “diagnostic costs can be reduced through pooling” which should be the way to expand it to more communities.
#HepCityFree
In addition to addressing screening issues in the general population, another challenge is that of vulnerable populations, particularly the homeless, intravenous drug users, and men who have sex with men (MSM), who are major sources of active infection. To move in this direction, AEHVE asks cities to commit to and adhere to the #HepCityFree plan, which is already achieving very positive results in the fight to eliminate hepatitis C, particularly through screening of the most vulnerable. #HepCityFree has become an international reference program in this field, thanks to the way it manages to illustrate the ways in which cooperation between local governments, NGOs and health administrations can be achieved.
Indeed, the #HepCityFree experience recently captured the attention of the international scientific community at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD 2023) conference in Boston, November 10-14. This is the main scientific meeting on liver diseases worldwide, where AEHVE is present and communicates on the most significant achievements of its Hepatitis C Free Cities programme, to which 17 Spanish cities have joined with the consent of their municipal council governing bodies (Plenary Assembly or Government Council), with a total population of approximately 7.5 million, and will soon be joined by 10 additional cities that are completing the accession process.
Of the 17 cities that have registered for the programme, 7 (Seville, Madrid, Ecija, Santander, Ferrol, Vigo and Alcoy) have already designed and/or started their respective routes Figure, which includes micro-elimination actions in care centers for vulnerable populations Locally empowered people (immigrants, homeless, injecting drug users), medical record review, telemedicine, training and awareness. These actions made it possible to screen more than 3,800 people, a result that, according to the authors of the study published in Boston, shows “that city commitments to eliminate hepatitis C are feasible and feasible.”