World Health Organisation recommends self-testing to tackle Hepatitis C epidemic

The World Health Organisation (WHO) now strongly recommends that all countries implement Hepatitis C (HCV) self-testing as an additional approach to diagnosing the virus.

During the 2021 International AIDS Conference. (IAS2021) the WHO published a new guide and set the goal of eliminating HCV as a public health problem by 2030.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to: diagnose 90% of people with HCV and then treat 80% of those diagnosed. However, as of 2019, only 21% of the estimated 58 million people with chronic HCV infection worldwide had been diagnosed. Moreover, despite recent advances in high-efficiency and affordable direct-acting antivirals (DAA), between 2015 and 2019, only 9.4 million people (62% of those diagnosed) received DAA treatment.

In many settings, people from key population groups, especially men who have sex with men and people who use inject drugs, have a higher rate of HCV infection, but do not benefit from testing and treatment.

The WHO Self-Test guidance is designed to support national programmes' efforts to reach people who would otherwise not be able to be tested. The new recommendations highlight key considerations for policymakers, national programs, suppliers, and testing providers.

In the recommendations, WHO provided a number of methods and tools for the implementation of HCV self-testing. This list includes:

• Models of interaction with society and schemes for the provision of services;
• Training providers;
• Creation of a favourable political environment;
• The use of quality products.

To guarantee quality, WHO has published technical specifications for the prequalification of self-test products for HCV. Self-test kits on HCV are likely to be on sale soon.

Meg Doherty, Director of WHO Global HIV, Hepatitis and STIs Programmes, said

“HIV self-testing has been an effective tool in accelerating progress towards achieving global goals, and many country programmes have benefited from the availability of HIV self-testing to support continuity of essential services in the COVID-19 context.

“We encourage countries and national programmes to start planning for introduction of HCV self-testing as well, especially for priority populations and regions with the greatest gaps in testing coverage.”