Strategies for Hepatitis C Testing and Treatment in Aboriginal Communities That Lead to Elimination

Strategies for Hepatitis C Testing and Treatment in Aboriginal Communities That Lead to Elimination

A community-based "test and treat" intervention integrating point-of-care HCV RNA testing, non-invasive liver disease assessment and linkage to care will lead to a reduction in HCV prevalence among people attending Aboriginal health services.

SCALE-C is an interventional cohort study recruiting people with or at risk of HCV infection from Aboriginal health services in Australia. Participants will be screened for HCV infection using point-of-care testing (anti-HCV antibody and/or HCV RNA). People with current HCV infection (HCV RNA positive) will be offered treatment with eight or 12 weeks of pan-genotypic DAA therapy, glecaprevir/pibrentasvir or sofosbuvir/velpatasvir, as available on the PBS.

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age or older;
• voluntarily signed the informed consent form.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pregnant women.