Ministers have talked the talk. It's now time to deliver on Hep C

Two years ago, the Government made a promise. Alongside 193 other countries it pledged to help eliminate the life-threatening Hepatitis C virus (HCV) by 2030. Then, in January, NHS England announced it was going one further: it will eliminate the virus by 2025, making us the first country in the world to do so.

These are certainly noble aims. But the burden of HCV is still growing. Some 160,000 people are infected in the UK, while a report last year found that only nine countries are set to hit the original 2030 target. The UK isn’t one of them.

Some excellent work has been done.  The Government and NHS England’s stated commitment to tackling the disease is welcome and, thanks to new medicines, we have made significant steps in the right direction. In 2015, the NHS treated virtually every UK patient who developed cirrhosis as a result of HCV. Just last month it launched the single largest medicines procurement exercise ever done by the NHS to treat even more people.

So we now have a huge opportunity. The virus – a liver infection that spreads through blood-to-blood contact – is a global health threat that affects 71 million people around the world. We have a responsibility to wipe it out in the same way that we could have done with tuberculosis.

Hepatitis C could be the UK’s next big public health success story. But if we want to eliminate it by 2025 we need a concerted and coordinated effort to find undiagnosed patients and treat them. This is the biggest obstacle we face so it requires everyone to join forces, from homelessness and drug and alcohol charities to GPs and public health directors, and from sexual health clinicians to prison staff.

I welcome the approach that NHS England is taking to identify those living with the virus and our work must be carefully coordinated to ensure no areas lose out. Vulnerable patients should be automatically tested at their GP, while testing should also be readily available at sexual health clinics and pharmacies – and amongst the prison population.

And the virus needs to stop being seen as the poor cousin of HIV. Hepatitis C needs an awareness-raising campaign like the one created for HIV. Data suggests that less than 40 per cent of people who have HCV in the UK have been diagnosed. Part of the problem is stigma; it is not just drug users who are affected. There has been a rise in young people contracting the virus via performance enhancing drugs such as injected steroids. Estimates suggest that one in 20 people who inject image and performance enhancing drugs have hepatitis C antibodies.

Baby boomers who injected drugs in the heady days of the 60s and 70s may also have contracted the illness unawares, whilst not many people know that sharing a toothbrush, razor or hair clippers can increase their risk. The appalling NHS contaminated blood scandal, due to be investigated in a judge-led public inquiry this year, also led to a large number of people being inadvertently infected with the virus. While thousands are being treated, it’s impossible to know exactly how many people remain undiagnosed.

With enhanced diagnosis rates and better pathways into treatment, there is now a real opportunity to eliminate the virus. But we all need to play our part. Clinicians like me are on the frontline and have valuable insights that can help ensure the future model is fit for purpose, and we are ready to help and encourage others to identify opportunities for coordinated action.

We need a collaborative approach, and the launch today of the ‘Eliminating Hepatitis C in England’ report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Liver Health is integral to doing just that. This is a step in the right direction, so we are calling on health and social care providers and commissioners to take into account these important recommendations.

Around the world, there are countries with far fewer resources and far higher prevalence of the virus who are matching their commitment. We must make it our priority too. Ultimately, it is cheaper to cure a patient of their HCV infection than it is to treat the complications of liver cancer.

The 2025 target is within our grasp. But we need to work together. We need to join forces and make sure this preventable disease is eliminated for good.

The author, Professor Steve Ryder,  is Chair of the Hepatitis C Coalition

Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Find out more