Community testing and treatment will be key to helping eliminate Hepatitis C by 2030, Dundee experts have found. Checking patients for the disease when they receive methadone treatment at smaller pharmacies will play a big part in the fight.
A study, led by Dr Christopher Byrne and Professor John Dillon at Dundee University’s School of Medicine found that nurse-delivered hepatitis c testing at community pharmacies made treatment more accessible and cure more likely, relative to conventional care, for people who use drugs.
They found that the model is well suited to smaller pharmacies and is an impor tant strategy for engaging this vulnerable patient group.
Hepatitis c is inflammation of the liver caused by a blood-borne virus commonly transmitted via injection drug use. Left untreated, it causes liver cirrhosis and cancer. There are 56 million people infected globally, with 1.5 million new cases and 290,000 deaths every year.
Dr Byrne said: “Our study is the first to implement nurse-led point-of-care testing – with results available on the same day – and treatment for hepatitis c in community pharmacies.
“Implementing models of care which bring hepatitis c testing and treatment into venues frequently used by people who use drugs can help to reduce the barriers to healthcare engagement, which is illustrated by the results of the trial.”
The Dundee study - carried out by Tayside Clinical Trials Unit - aimed to understand if using nurses to deliver point-of-care testing for hepatitis c in community pharmacies led to more people in receipt of methadone and other opioid substitution therapies achieving a cure relative to conventional care.
Dr Byrne continued: “With fewer than ten years remaining to meet the WHO target of eliminating hepatitis c as a public health threat, substantial efforts are required to improve diagnosis and treatment of the virus among key affected patient groups, such as people who use drugs.”
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