Hep C Elimination Tool

More than 71 million people are infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) worldwide. In 2015, approximately 400,000 people died of complications of HCV infection. Unlike hepatitis A and B viruses, no vaccine against HCV exists. Chronic hepatitis C is a leading cause of cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death from liver disease worldwide.

The availability of direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) has revolutionized HCV treatment – these medicines are safe and highly efficacious, with HCV cure rates of 95–100%. As a result, HCV can be eliminated if timely treatment can be made available on a large scale. In May 2016, the World Health Assembly pledged to eliminate HCV as a public health threat by 2030, and the WHO launched a global strategy to meet the elimination targets: 90% reduction in HCV incidence compared with the baseline (2015) and 65% reduction in HCV-related deaths.

Hep C Elimination Tool aims to provide guidance on how HCV elimination targets can be achieved in a given region or country and what is the cost of eliminating HCV. Because of several changing dynamics – such as changes in drug prices, changing HCV prevalence and incidence – Hep C Elimination tool is designed to provide up-to-date information about the disease burden and the return on investment expected with scaling-up HCV treatment.