Mahdi Sheikh
1,2, Hossein Poustchi
1*1 Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Center, Digestive Disease Research Institute, Shariati Hospital, Tehran university of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 International Agency for Research on Cancer, the World Health Organization (WHO), Lyon, France
*Corresponding Author: *Corresponding Author: Hossein Poustchi, MD, PhD; Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Center, Digestive Disease Research Institute, Shariati Hospital, Tehran university of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Address: Digestive Diseases Research Institute, Shariati Hospital, N. Kargar St., Tehran 14117, Iran. Tel: +98- 21-8241-5141, Email: , Email:
H.poustchi@gmail.com
Abstract
Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV), can now be safely treated with oral, well-tolerated medications with >90% success
rates, however, currently <5% of the infected individuals have been diagnosed and <1% have received treatment. This is believed
to be due to the complicated, time-consuming and expensive disease management processes that require several referrals to
specialized laboratories and hospital-based clinics, and also the epidemic of HCV infection among populations who have low
uptake for evaluation, appointments, and treatment. Point of care (POC) policy emphasizes on delivering healthcare tests and
services to patients at or near the place and time of patient care. A reasonable design for POC policy should contain all parts
of the HCV management continuum including screening, diagnosis of viremia, genotyping, cirrhosis evaluation and treatment.
Furthermore, successful implementation of this policy requires acceptability from the perspectives of healthcare providers, target
populations, and policymakers. In this letter, we discuss the current applicability, acceptability, and cost-effectiveness of POC
policy for the management of HCV infection.