Nancy Reau, MD: Improving Access to HCV Care in the US

There has long been a goal of global eradication of hepatitis C virus (HCV) by the year 2030.

And with the advent of direct-acting antivirals (DAA), the treatment component of HCV care has improved drastically in recent years.

However, for the eradication to be realistic, there still needs to be improvements to HCV screening practices and linkage to care, both globally and in the US.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Nancy S. Reau, MD, The Richard B. Capps Chair of Hepatology, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, Rush Medical College, said we are currently not on track to achieve this goal but there are several improvements that can be made to get there.

“We are not on track for the [World Health Organization) WHO’s elimination target of 2030,” Reau said. “Part of that is because most of our screening does fall to primary care providers, where there are competing needs for what they need to be doing. And some of it falls on patients and patients are very good at telling what the person next to them needs to be doing.”

These general barriers can be overcome, but the biggest group of individuals who are at risk for HCV are people who inject drugs. This presents a more challenging burden both in the US and other countries.