Professor Mark Stoové, co-author of the report and Burnet Institute Head of Public Health, warns that Australia risks squandering the golden opportunity afforded by the DAAs and a world-class health system.
"We've got a solid basis in the results we've had over the previous five years," Professor Stoové said, "but the methodologies that underpin that foundation are no longer sufficient to achieve elimination."
"We must rethink our care models and work hard to reach the remaining Australians living with hepatitis C who are yet to be treated."
Care models should effectively incorporate hepatitis C care into alcohol and other drug treatment services, such as opioid agonist therapy and NSPs (needle and syringe programs), as well as tailor primary care services to serve people with or at risk of hepatitis C.
The recent approval of hepatitis C point-of-care testing opens up new avenues for diagnosis and treatment.
"We've made DAAs widely available so that any general practitioner, nurse practitioner, or clinician in a community or prison health care facility can prescribe them," said Professor Gregory Dore, Head of the Viral Hepatitis Clinical Research Program.
"However, simply making the medications available through these channels is insufficient.
"When a person at risk of hepatitis C presents to a service, we must capitalize on those engagement points by asking if they have been tested in the past or lately, and then offering testing and treatment within the same model of care.
"The national push to deploy point-of-care hepatitis C testing in community and prison settings should offer impetus to increased screening and rapid connection to treatment, both of which are critical prerequisites to re-energize hepatitis C elimination efforts."
Maximizing the utilization of current monitoring technologies can also aid in the identification of previously diagnosed individuals who have been lost to care.
"There is a lot of goodwill in the sector in terms of how we can work together more efficiently in the delivery of services," Professor Stoové said. "However, we need to invest in innovative models of care that can speed our progress toward elimination."
"That will be a struggle in the coming years, but it is critical that we do not squander the opportunity afforded by the DAAs."
https://www.yicare-medical.com/rapid-test/infectious-disease-tests/hcv-rapid-test-strip-device.html