NHS on track to eliminate hepatitis C five years ahead of global targets

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The NHS is set to eliminate hepatitis C in England by 2025 due to targeted screening campaigns for those at risk and effective drug treatments, according to health officials. NHS England said the measures are helping to dramatically cut deaths from the virus five years ahead of global targets.

Deaths from hepatitis C – including liver disease and cancer – have fallen by 35% since NHS England struck a five-year deal worth almost ?1bn to buy antiviral drugs for thousands of patients in 2018.

The World Health Organization’s target of a 10% reduction in hepatitis C-related death by 2020 has been exceeded threefold in England.

An NHS screening programme launched in September is also enabling up to 80,000 people unknowingly living with the disease to get a diagnosis and treatment sooner by searching health records for key risk factors, such as historic blood transfusions or HIV.

Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said the health service was “leading the world” in the drive to save lives and eliminate hepatitis C while also tackling health inequalities.

He said: “Thanks to targeted screening and because the NHS has a proven track record of striking medicine agreements that give patients access to the latest drugs, we are on track to beat global targets and become the first country to eliminate hepatitis C.”

Dedicated ‘Find and Treat’ programmes have also helped the NHS reduce hepatitis C cases among vulnerable communities such as homeless people, who are more at risk due to substance misuse, sharing toothbrushes or razors, and other lifestyle factors associated with rough sleeping.

NHS staff are visiting at-risk communities in specially equipped trucks to test for the virus and carry out liver health checks with portable scans to detect organ damage.

Hepatitis C is usually spread through blood-to-blood contact. It can be spread by sharing unsterilised needles – particularly needles used to inject recreational drugs. If left untreated, the virus can cause liver cancer and liver failure.

Homelessness charity St Mungo’s is providing same-day screenings along with help to complete treatment as part of the programme.

Sara Hide, a hepatitis C coordinator at St Mungo’s in Oxford, said: “With treatment for hepatitis C now less invasive – a course of medication for eight to 12 weeks – we’ve seen an uptake in people responding to our screening services.”

Nationally, the project has helped cure 70,000 people of the potentially fatal disease, NHS England said. Within six years, it has also reduced the number of people seeking liver transplants due to the virus by two-thirds, while the number of annual registrations for a liver transplant in patients with hepatitis C-related diseases has fallen from about 140 a year to fewer than 50 in 2020.

The project has also provided 80% of its treatments to people from communities in the poorest half of the population.

Since the rollout of an NHS plan to treat children for hepatitis C last year, more than 100 children have received infection-curing antivirals, with 90% of treatments given to children among the poorest 40%.

Hepatitis C Trust chief executive Rachel Halford said: “The progress that has been made towards elimination is truly astounding. We now need a final concerted effort to make sure we reach all those that may be affected and reach elimination.”

Lord Markham, the health minister, said: “I’m grateful to NHS staff and our partner charities like St Mungo’s for the fantastic progress that has been made so far. Deaths and prevalence of the virus have fallen consistently thanks to improvements in diagnosis and access to treatments.”