Driving HCV Elimination Through Dedicated Hospital-Based Teams and Pathways: A Retrospective and Prospective Study

The advent of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) has had a signif- icant impact on hepatitis C, given that for several years now, nearly all infected individuals can be cured through a short and highly effective course of therapy. Despite this, the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of viral hepatitis elimination by 2030 seems plausible only in a minority of countries [1, 2]. In response to this, and against a backdrop of declining global treatment uptake, screening and improved linkage-to- care protocols represent pivotal interventions. Among the settings where screening is considered profitable are hospitals, both for inpatients and outpatients or in emergency departments, a practice that presents a unique and powerful opportunity to identify individuals who might otherwise remain undiagnosed [3, 4]. The identification of HCV-Ab positivity through screen- ing, however, is only the first step in HCV care, and the subse- quent phases, from the confirmation of active infection to the initiation of treatment, are often characterized by a significant loss of patients [5, 6]. Nevertheless, in the hospital, if dedicated protocols are put in place, these steps can be condensed, mak- ing the process easier for both physicians and patients. In this study, we conducted a retrospective evaluation of the entire HCV cascade of care at our hospital, subsequently applying an improved, standardized, linkage-to- care protocol for actively infected patients