Deaths from liver failure or liver cancer caused by hepatitis C fell by 20% between 2016 and 2018 in Australia, the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales reported in August.
A similar trend was evident in the United Kingdom, Public Health England (PHE) reported.
Deaths from end-stage liver disease and liver cancer caused by hepatitis C in the United Kingdom fell by 11% in 2017, provisional figures from PHE released on 28 July show.
Most of the decline was the result of a reduction in deaths from end-stage liver disease, not liver cancer, PHE says, and took place at the same time as a 19% increase in the number of people who received direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment. PHE says that the United Kingdom is on track to achieve the World Health Organization’s target of a 10% reduction in hepatitis C virus-related mortality by 2020.
Just over 14,000 people started DAA treatment from April 2017 to March 2018, an increase of 19% on the previous year and a doubling of the number of people receiving treatment for hepatitis C compared to 2014. PHE warns that the biggest obstacle to further increases in the number of people accessing treatment will be the ability of the NHS, harm reduction and drug treatment services to diagnose and link to care people with undiagnosed hepatitis C.
PHE also reported that nearly two-thirds of those diagnosed with hepatitis C and found to have co-infection with HIV in England between 2008 and 2014 were men who have sex with men. Two-thirds of all those diagnosed as having co-infection had been diagnosed with HIV at least six months before their hepatitis C diagnosis, indicating that they were exposed to hepatitis C after HIV diagnosis. In most of the cases in men who have sex with men, the route of exposure was sexual activity, not injecting drug use.
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