Dual Strategy Involving Hospital-Based Study and Community-Based Screening to Eliminate Hepatitis C in Remote Areas
To achieve the World Health Organization goal of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030, a key strategy in resource-limited areas is to identify the areas with high prevalence and to prioritize screening and treatment interventions.
A study, published in the Journal of the Formosan Medical Association, hypothesized that a hospital-based laboratory database could be used to estimate the township- and village-specific hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence. That hypothesis was tested in Yunlin County - a nonmountainous remote area in Taiwan.
The study showed that hospital-based database provided a framework for identifying the villages with high HCV prevalence allowing for prioritizing community-based universal screening in these villages. By linking screening to care, HCV elimination can be achieved in these areas.