Spain on the verge of becoming the first country to eliminate hepatitis C

Madrid (EFE) Now, when around 20,000 people still have to be treated and cured, he is very close again.

On the eve of World Viral Hepatitis Day, which is celebrated annually on July 28, the Spanish Association for the Study of the Liver (AEEH) and the Spanish Alliance for the Elimination of Viral Hepatitis (AEHVE) expressed optimism over the fact that Spain has reduced hepatitis C to a rare disease, thus Achieving “historic health success” by 2024 or 2025.

Pandemic slows progress toward goals

As early as 2020, the Polaris Observatory determined that my country is the only country in the world that can achieve all elimination goals by 2021: a 90% reduction in new infections, a 65% reduction in cirrhosis and liver cancer deaths; a diagnosis rate of over 90%; And provide treatment to at least 80% of those who request it.

Javier García-Samaniego, Coordinator of the Alliance and Head of the Liver Unit at the La Paz Hospital in Madrid, assured that “we would have achieved our goals” without the pandemic; however, with the Pneumonia (covid-19) outbreak, micro-elimination programs for vulnerable populations stopped.

In the general population, medical record search procedures (for people diagnosed at some point but not yet treated) and risk factor screening procedures have also slowed down.

New treatments were barely used in 2020 and a recovery in 2021, but not at pre-pandemic levels, but now the expert has no doubts that Spain is only one step away from achieving this goal.

This optimism comes from the experience of Galicia, a world pioneer in the diagnostic analysis of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) by pooling of samples (PCR), also known as “pooling”.

Apart from Galicia, only a few communities such as Cantabria and Andalusia consider opportunistic screening by age, but AEEH President Manuel Romero believes that the lower price of diagnosis would prompt the Ministry of Health to extend it to the general population by age and not limit it to risk factors.

“Spain is very close to eliminating hepatitis C”

“Spain is very close to eliminating hepatitis C. We still have around 20,000 people who need treatment and cure,” said the liver specialist at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital, who estimates the prevalence of active infection in the general population to be close to 0.1%.

Another challenge is that vulnerable populations – the homeless, IV drug users and men who have sex with men – have also taken important steps towards these challenges with the #HepCityFree program which highlights the role that communities local communities can play through screening These high-risk groups to eliminate hepatitis C.

If this opportunistic screening is expanded and allows cities to aggressively seek cases in populations that typically don’t have access to health systems, both groups predict the public health problem will disappear within a year or two.

“This will be the tail end of the success story of the Spanish health system’s response to hepatitis C,” the expert concluded.