Point‐of‐care hepatitis C testing and treatment strategy for people attending harm reduction and addiction centres for hepatitis C elimination

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) causes a significant health and economic burden and reduces patients’ quality of life. To reach the goal of eliminating hepatitis C by 2030 set by the World Health Organization (WHO)1, a public health approach is needed to develop strategies aimed at screening and simplifying HCV infection diagnosis and facilitating early linkage to care and treatment, especially among drug users.

Drug users have a high risk of contracting HCV and encounter many barriers to access diagnosis and treatment within the conventional health system1. In Catalonia, there are different services and centres, including harm reduction centres (HRCs) aimed at serving active drug users who do not want or cannot initiate opioid substitution therapy (OST) and addiction centres (ACs) specialized in the treatment of all drug addictions offering outpatient therapeutic support. In both types of centres, the prevalence of undiagnosed active HCV infection is high, which is a notable obstacle to the administration of effective treatment.

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