Asia Pacific AIDS & Co-infections Conference 2018 HCV

The topic of the very last session of the conference was on viral hepatitis. I didn’t know what to expect initially. By the end of the session, I’ve dramatically increased my insights regarding Hep B and Hep C.

Gail Matthews of the Kirby Institute spoke of HCV elimination from a clinician’s perspective. Currently only 9 countries are on track to meet targets set out by WHO, with Malaysia and Georgia the only two low income countries. Throughout the conference we have heard the barrier of costs of accessing medications can have on effective roll out of health service programs. Whilst this is of course true it is not the complete solution in achieving HCV elimination. Dr Matthews illustrated that even in Australia where we are successfully meeting WHO targets and have universal access to HCV medications, DAA uptake has significantly declined.

A/Prof Gail Matthews,  Kirby Institute, UNSW, Australia

Elimination is reduction in incidence and related mortality to a level that are no longer a public health concern. A/Prof Matthews describes a number of ways in which clinicians can and do contribute directly to this aim. According to A/Prof Kirby, 9 countries are on track to meet targets, Australia is lucky to be one of them. She identified an increasing prescriber base with no need for specialists in most cases. 

Panel Discussion

 As a conclusion to the APACC 2018 conference, this discussion was a fantastic example of the learning that can happen when clinicians, researchers, advocates and PLHIV come together and share their work and ideas.