Hepatitis Can’t Wait!
July 28 is a day to call for action and raise awareness on the global burden of viral hepatitis which impacts over 325 million people in the world. CanHepC joins its voice to the World Hepatitis Day campaign under the theme ‘I Can’t Wait’ urging for concrete action to be taken to tackle viral hepatitis.
In 2016, the Canadian government endorsed the World Health Organisation Global Health Sector Strategy for viral hepatitis and adopted its targets for eliminating hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030. However, healthcare in Canada falls under provincial and territorial jurisdiction which means that much of viral elimination planning is under their responsibility. Six years later, steps taken by Canadian provinces and territories towards elimination diverge as demonstrated by Action Hepatitis Canada's progress report - while some have developed specific hepatitis elimination action plans (e.g. Prince-Edward Island and Alberta) or have implemented key measures for elimination such as hepatitis C reflex testing and prevention strategies most have yet to do so. These past two years of COVID-19 pandemic have set us back in our elimination efforts even further - in many regions of Canada healthcare and social services offered to people affected by hepatitis C were disrupted which has led to an increase in hepatitis C transmission. As we are cautiously stepping out of the pandemic and beginning to return to normal life it’s time to re-center our efforts on viral hepatitis elimination.
CanHepC is committed to help Canadian provinces and territories advance with their elimination planning efforts. We are currently facilitating the development of regional hepatitis C elimination roadmaps which will contextualise the national Blueprint launched by the network in 2019. Led by key stakeholders and experts from diverse sectors in 6 main regions of the country (British Columbia, Prairie, Ontario, Québec, Atlantic, and the North in addition to a national Indigenous peoples roadmap) the CanHepC Hepatitis C Elimination Roadmap project aims to build consensus on the priority recommendations and actions to put in place to eliminate hepatitis C. An important part of our research program is also focused on optimising hepatitis C prevention strategies and treatment programs which are necessary to reach hepatitis C elimination goals.
