Wide Use of New HCV Drugs Prevents New Cases — ‘Treatment as prevention’ possible

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SEATTLE — Unrestricted use of new direct-acting agents against hepatitis C (HCV) can markedly reduce the rate of new infections, a researcher said here.

That’s based on analysis of what happened in the Netherlands among gay men with both HIV and HCV when unlimited access to the new, highly effective agents was rolled out in 2015, according to Bart Rijnders, MD, PhD, of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Uptake of the drugs was substantial and the rate of new HCV infections was cut in half, Rijnders told reporters at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI).

The study looked at a well-characterized cohort of men in HIV care, Rijnders said, but there’s not reason to think the same effect would not apply to wider population.

“It’s an example of what is possible if you search for hepatitis C and treat it as soon as possible and you have the money and the drugs,” Rijnders told MedPage Today.

The study is the “first proof that early treatment can be a form of prevention” of HCV transmission, commented David Thomas, MD, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who was not part of the study but who moderated a media briefing at which details were discussed.

He said it’s “important to note the contrast to the U.S., where 90% of states have restrictions” that work against using HCV treatment as prevention and “many forbid for people actively using drugs.”