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Review
. 2021 Oct 31;3(5):293-300.
doi: 10.35772/ghm.2021.01064.

Taiwan accelerates its efforts to eliminate hepatitis C

Rong-Nan Chien  1   2 , Sheng-Nan Lu  1   3 , Raoh-Fang Pwu  1   4 , Grace Hui-Min Wu  1   5 , Wen-Wen Yang  1 , Chia-Ling Liu  1
Affiliations
Review

Taiwan accelerates its efforts to eliminate hepatitis C

Rong-Nan Chien et al. Glob Health Med. .

Abstract

The estimated prevalence of anti-HCV was 3.3% (1.8-5.5%) in the general population in Taiwan with several regional disparities. The reactive anti-HCV in different regions may vary between 0% and 65%. The National Hepatitis C Program (NHCP) office estimated approximately 623,323 persons reactive with anti-HCV based on several extensive region- and cohort-wide studies. Taiwan has accelerated its efforts to eliminate hepatitis C since 2018 by committing to achieve World Health Organization (WHO)'s 2030 goal of treating 80% of eligible patients by 2025. Many aggressive measures by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) have been ongoing including several key success factors such as political commitment by the MOHW to finance this national program and improve National Health Insurance (NHI) reimbursement restrictions for treatment. Meanwhile, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) instituted harm reduction programs and the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) started to improve awareness and perform national screening programs. The NHCP office instituted monitoring, evaluation, micro-elimination and funding to linkage to care programs. In addition to sustainable financing, it is imperative to scale-up screening coverage through a precision public health approach to fill the gap of under-diagnosis. Hopefully, we can achieve early elimination by announcing the treatment target of 250000 CHC patients by 2025.

Keywords: HCV elimination; National Hepatitis C Program; Taiwan's effort.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
National Hepatitis C Program (NHCP) Office, Ministry of Health and Welfare since December 2016.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Precision public health.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
HCV elimination coordinating office.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Localized care delivery.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
(A) Seven indices of higher HCV prevalence; (B) Estimated percentage of chronic hepatitis C patients by risk levels.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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