Our journey to hepatitis C micro-elimination
What is hepatitis C?
Hepatitis C is a blood borne viral infection which can cause acute and chronic hepatitis. This can range in severity - some people become mildly unwell, while others develop lifelong illnesses, including liver cirrhosis and cancer, which can lead to death.
It is estimated that globally, 58 million people have the chronic hepatitis C virus infection and there are around 1.5 million new infections each year. While there is currently no effective vaccine against the virus, antiviral medicines can cure more than 95% of hepatitis C infections.
Our micro-elimination goals
NHS England has set a target to eliminate hepatitis C before 2025. As part of a partnership with Gilead Sciences, we have developed our own plans to meet this target and micro-eliminate hepatitis C in our 12 Blood Borne Viruses (BBV) commissioned services in England by the end of 2023.
To measure our progress towards micro-elimination, a forum made up of Drug and Alcohol Providers, NHSE, Hepatitis C Trust and Gilead Sciences co-developed a definition and quality standards for micro-elimination. Micro-elimination is therefore defined as:
- 100% of clients in structured treatment are offered a hepatitis C test
- 100% of those with a history of injecting have been tested for hepatitis C
- 90% of current and previous injectors (at risk) have a hepatitis C test date within the last 12 months
- 90% of clients who’ve tested positive for hepatitis have commenced treatment
Whilst the idea of micro-elimination is centred around injecting drug users, clients can be vulnerable to blood borne viruses (which includes hepatitis c) for a variety of reasons: through sex, tattoos, sharing razors and even toothbrushes. It’s for this reason we encourage our BBV commissioned services to test every client whether or not they inject. This means no one will miss out on timely, appropriate treatment and ultimately the chance to get better.
Our BBV commissioned services are doing vital work and they are making progress towards achieving our goal of micro elimination. Darlington achieved micro-elimination in September 2023 and a number of other services are very close. Earlier this year we launched our Test, Treat, Repeat campaign to further encourage staff to help reduce the impact of BBV among our clients and reach their targets.
Any service that declares will continue a comprehensive testing programme to sustain their micro-elimination status and strive towards our overall ambition of complete elimination of hepatitis C going forward. Read more about our achievements, progress and goals in our Hepatitis C Elimination Report for 2022 - 2023.
Which of our English services are commissioned to deliver BBV services?
- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
- Cornwall
- Darlington
- Lincolnshire
- Liverpool
- North East Lincolnshire (Grimsby)
- North Lincolnshire (Scunthrope)
- North Somerset
- Redcar and Cleveland
- Rotherham
- Shropshire
- Wigan and Leigh