Eliminating hepatitis C by 2030 is a feasible goal. An infection that in 2015 was the main cause of liver transplants and cirrhosis has become a residual disease in Spain, since the treatments currently dispensed to patients have had an “absolutely unthinkable” impact, even for the doctors themselves. .
A conference organized by Gilead brought together hepatitis experts such as the doctor Jose Luis CallejaPresident of the Spanish Association for Liver Studies (AEEH); Javier Crespo, President of the Spanish Society of Digestive Pathology (SEPD); and Manuel Romerohead of the Digestive System section of the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital.
All of them have remarked that since the launch of the Strategic Plan for Addressing Hepatitis Cin Spain more than 161,000 patients have been treated with cure rates of around 95 percent.
In fact, some studies suggest that Spain could become the second country in the world to eliminate hepatitis C, after Iceland.
“Probably, there is no other health intervention that has had an impact like this,” Calleja said in relation to the inclusion of treatments in the National Health System, although the experts ask to go further and work even more on the detection of this virus through a blood test that is carried out on the entire adult population and not only on vulnerable groups.
More than 76,000 people infected with HCV
It is estimated that there are more than 76,500 people with HCV in the general population, of whom 22,500 have active infection and have not been diagnosed.
Doctor Romero has called for an additional effort to not leave any patient behind and try to locate them all through screening when they arrive through the emergency services, in primary care and among vulnerable people such as the homeless.
“It is more difficult for all these people to find them and, for this reason, our great challenge is to identify them, since today a found patient is a treated and cured patient,” he assured.
The president of the Spanish Society for Liver Studies He recalled that there are six regional plans for the elimination of hepatitis C in Spain with different scope and focus, but he has demanded that the National Health System also include a strategy to test patients, because in this case they can be cured, as has recently done France.
Although the Ministry of Health has so far been reticent, experts are hopeful that another approach will finally be adopted. “We are still late for the diagnosis”said Calleja, who recalls that with a simple test two thirds of infected patients can be located, without creating stigma, or investigating risk factors.
