Abstract

The worldwide prevalence of the hepatitis C virus takes a heavy toll on lives, communities, and health systems. Every year more than 4 million peoples die from hepatitis C-related liver cancers and cirrhosis- a mortality tool comparable to that of HIV and tuberculosis. It needs for a global health sector strategy stems from the scale and complexity of the hepatitis C epidemic, along with growing recognition of its massive public health burden, and the huge opportunities for action. It is a golden time now to establish a coherent public health hepatitis C response that prioritizes effective interventions, promotes service delivery approaches that ensure quality and equity to test and treat every hepatitis C infected individual, takes programs to achieve the sustained impact of hepatitis C diagnostics and therapeutics at the population level, and establishes clear stakeholder responsibility and accountability. There are unprecedented opportunities to act while ending the hepatitis C epidemic and are feasible with the tools and approaches currently available and in the pipeline. For the greatest impact, these opportunities should be combined and tailored for specific populations, locations, and settings. New opportunities and health sector policies provide a ray of hope for the elimination of hepatitis C as a public health threat. In this book chapter, we will highlight the goals, aims, opportunities, and barriers to a coherent public health policy for hepatitis C effective interventions at screening, diagnostic, and therapeutic scale in general and vulnerable hepatitis C infected populations and their consensus implementations to healthcare systems.