The HCV time bomb is ticking… Test and treat Hepatitis C now!

Access to prevention tools, diagnostics, and treatment remains extremely limited, particularly for people who inject drugs (PWID), a group disproportionately affected by HCV. Nearly 60% (10 million) of the world’s 16 million people who inject drugs have HCV and 90% of new infections are caused by the sharing of injecting equipment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) must act to increase global access to HCV diagnostics and treatment, by:

Picking out frequently on the need for rights-based harm reduction services including needle and syringe programs, opioid substitution treatment and integrated hepatitis C treatment on a scale that will reverse the HCV epidemic among people who inject drugs as recommended by WHO/UNAIDS/UNODC.

Actively supporting the application to put pegylated interferon on the WHO Essential Medicines List, thus improving the likelihood of access to affordable pegylated interferon in low- and middle-income countries.

Providing technical support to countries to create access to affordable, high-quality, effective and safe biosimilar and alternative pegylated interferon products.

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