Prioritising treatment among people who inject drugs in order to eliminate hepatitis C: addressing reluctance with sound economic analyses

In May 2016, the World Health Assembly, the governing body of WHO, endorsed the first-ever global hepatitis strategy.1 This document, termed the Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis (GHSS-VH), proposes ambitious prevention and treatment targets with the ultimate goal of eliminating hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. The GHSS-VH defines elimination as a 90% reduction in incidence of chronic HBV and HCV infections and a 65% reduction in hepatitis-related mortality. Achieving the goals of the global strategy will require scaling up prevention and treatment services, which in turn will require increases in financial resources and political commitment. In addition, national health planners will need to decide how best to allocate these resources so that they have maximal impact. A solid understanding of the epidemiology of hepatitis infection in the country, in particular identifying groups at highest risk of infection and those at highest risk...