3BETTER HEPATITIS C DIAGNOSTICS AND TREATMENT
US$ 57.5 MILLION
INVESTED BY UNITAID
Some 71 million people around the world are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and each year 400,000 die from related diseases. With new, shorter and less toxic treatments, hepatitis C can be cured in three months, but access to diagnosis and treatment is poor. In low- and middle-income countries where three-quarters of infections and deaths occur, less than 5 percent of those infected know their status.
Better tests to more easily diagnose and monitor HCV are urgently needed to screen and test communities at risk, notably patients co-infected with HIV and HCV.
A US$ 38.3 million Unitaid grant, implemented by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and partners, will support the development of better, simpler point-of-care HCV diagnostic tools, and will support their implementation in Cameroon, Georgia, India, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam. This three-year project aims to make HCV diagnosis and treatment more affordable and more widely available.
In 2016, WHO adopted a Global Viral Hepatitis Strategy that set targets for 2030: a 90 percent reduction in new cases, a 65 percent reduction in mortality, 90 percent of HCV infections diagnosed, and 80 percent of patients receiving treatment.
FIND will introduce simpler HCV diagnostics, establishing innovative models for screening and treatment in HIV/HCV co-infected populations, and finding ways to cut costs. FIND estimates that two million years of good health and large savings for health systems could be gained, if countries involved fully adopt the diagnostics over a five-year period.
“The treatment breakthrough offers a tremendous opportunity to address HCV, particularly among HIV/HCV co-infected people, who progress faster to serious disease than HCV mono-infected people. Testing and treatment must go hand in hand, and the main obstacle now is the lack of appropriate diagnostic tests.”
Catharina Boehme
Chief Executive Officer, FIND