Resources

This report from the London Joint Working Group on Substance Use and Hepatitis C (LJWG) shows the findings from a pilot project providing point of care testing for hepatitis C to people who inject drugs accessing needle and syringe programmes based at community pharmacies in London. Of the 66 people who accepted a test, 39% were hepatitis C RNA positive. 78% of those tested also stated they would prefer to receive HCV treatment in their community pharmacy.

Public Health England published 'PHE Infectious Diseases Strategy 2020-25: Addressing urgent threats in the 21st century' in September 2019. The strategy sets out PHE's 10 priorities for infectious diseases over the next five years and how they will achieve these. Of particular relevance to hepatitis C is priority 4, which aims to "Eliminate hepatitis B and C, Tuberculosis and HIV and halt the rise in sexually transmitted infections in our population". The document states PHE will "enable work on detection, surveillance and control of HIV, hepatitis B, C, and TB".

Published in July 2019 this review summarizes the evidence for interventions to increase case-finding and linkage to care for hepatitis C-infected patients, in order to support commissioning and provision of evidence-based interventions as part of efforts to achieve hepatitis C (HCV) elimination as a major public health threat in the UK.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction published 'Hepatitis C: new models of care for drugs services' in July 2019. This aims to highlight the importance of targeting people who inject drugs as a key population for the elimination of hepatitis C in Europe and to show innovative practice in the form of 11 case studies (three of which are from England). The report provides key insights into the results, impact, sustainability and transferability of each practice to guide the implementation of these new models of care in other countries and settings.