Ruchi Sogarwal
PerkinElmer, Inc, India
Title: Prevention and Management of HCV-HIV co-infection in India: From Policy to Practice
Biography
Biography: Ruchi Sogarwal
Abstract
About 12 million people are reported to be suffering from Hepatitis C in India — six times the number of HIV/AIDS patients. Indian studies have reported that People who inject drugs (PWID) have disproportionately high HCV prevalence (20–90 %) in comparison to the general population. In light of overlapping risk factors for transmission of viral hepatitis and HIV infection, as well as limited public health resources in many settings, the World Health Organization has recommended integrating HCV and HIV services for prevention and management of co-infections. Pilot interventions have indicated that safe injecting and sexual practices, adherence to OST and frequent mobility customized for PWID by ‘age’ should be prioritized for HCV risk reduction.
During the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), Government of India launched the National Programme for prevention and control of viral Hepatitis. Further, it instituted the National Viral Hepatitis Surveillance Programme, which aimed at capacity building of health care functionaries with special emphasis on ‘community’ centric education. It also has focused strategies to increase ‘case finding’ and utmost safety during injection/blood transfusion practices for prevention of co-infections.
Though these policy initiatives are timely since recent treatment advances have resulted in most cases of chronic HCV being curable with the use of direct-acting antiviral regimens. However, translating these advances into declines in co-infections are currently limited by the fact that 50 to 75% of infected individuals are unaware of their sero-status and young individuals (<30 years of age) are likely to be undiagnosed or late diagnosed. Thus, continue to spread the infection for decades and eventually contributing to the health care burden. Therefore, a coordinated implementation practices for expanded access to prevention services addressing an unmet need of high risk individuals would surely help in making India a free nation from HCV and HIV.