Fighting Hepatitis C in a COVID-19 ecosystem. Public health policies are needed more than ever

Lopes, Henrique; Baptista‐Leite, Ricardo; Franco, Diogo; Kundurzhiev, Todor; Mateva, Lyudmila; Jelev, Dejan; Simonova, Marieta

doi:10.15403/jgld-2794

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The model was applied to a set of countries; studies in 5 of these countries have already been completed or are currently under publication process [38][39][40][41][42], and those in the remaining countries are in different conclusion phases, with data being available on the LEHC website for the period between 2017 and 2019.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The tool allows people to simulate even seemingly strange or counterintuitive solutions with privacy simply to verify data movements' sensitivity. The simulation processes enabled the health decision makers and the politicians to provide answers about the tool's performance limits and illustrate with concrete, measurable, and externally verifiable facts [38][39][40][41][42].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As in previous works mentioned in the literature review [15,[18][19][20][21]23], modeling allowed obtaining a set of indicators, as explained above. Similarly, as stated in the appointed application articles for this model [38][39][40][41][42], although there were differences in the year of elimination of hepatitis C (according to WHO criteria), these were not structural until the COVID-19 pandemic. It must be noted that COVID-19 represents a threat to allocated efforts to achieve the elimination of hepatitis C by 2030, with the disease elimination programs being highly impacted [43][44][45].…”

Section: Comparison With Prior Workmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Epidemiological Modeling of the Impact of Public Health Policies on Hepatitis C: Protocol for a Gamification Tool Targeting Microelimination

Baptista-Leite,

Lopes,

Vandewalle

et al. 2023

JMIR Res Protoc

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Background Hepatitis C is a disease with a strong social component, as its main transmission route is via blood, making it associated with lifestyle. Therefore, it is suitable to be worked on from the perspective of public health policy, which still has a lot of room to explore and improve, contrary to diagnoses and treatments, which are already very refined and effective. Objective An interactive gamified policy tool, designated as Let’s End HepC (LEHC), was created to understand the impact of policies related to hepatitis C on the disease’s epidemiology on a yearly basis until 2030. Methods To this end, an innovative epidemiological model was developed, integrating Markov chains to model the natural history of the disease and adaptive conjoint analysis to reflect the degree of application of each of the 24 public health policies included in the model. This double imputation model makes it possible to assess a set of indicators such as liver transplant, incidence, and deaths year by year until 2030 in different risk groups. Populations at a higher risk were integrated into the model to understand the specific epidemiological dynamics within the total population of each country and within segments that comprise people who have received blood products, prisoners, people who inject drugs, people infected through vertical transmission, and the remaining population. Results The model has already been applied to a group of countries, and studies in 5 of these countries have already been concluded, showing results very close to those obtained through other forms of evaluation. Conclusions The LEHC model allows the simulation of different degrees of implementation of each policy and thus the verification of its epidemiological impact on each studied population. The gamification feature allows assessing the adequate fulfillment of the World Health Organization goals for the elimination of hepatitis C by 2030. LEHC supports health decision makers and people who practice patient advocacy in making decisions based on science, and because LEHC is democratically shared, it ends up contributing to the increase of citizenship in health. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) RR1-10.2196/38521

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Comparison With Prior Workmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Epidemiological Modeling of the Impact of Public Health Policies on Hepatitis C: Protocol for a Gamification Tool Targeting Microelimination

Baptista-Leite,

Lopes,

Vandewalle

et al. 2023

JMIR Res Protoc

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…It has been proposed to incorporate different diagnostic options into care circuits during the pandemic, along with measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (19). In this regard, HCV screening has been promoted in conjunction with COVID-19 diagnostic tests or with routine vaccination (20), such as the experience published in Italy by Giacomelli A. et al, in patients over 50 years of age with a participation rate close to 50% (21); or even considering a more simplified circuit using the DBS for joint screening (22).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hepatitis C diagnosis slowdown in high-prevalence groups and using decentralised diagnostic strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic

Morales-Arráez¹,

Benítez-Zafra²,

Díaz‐Flores³

et al. 2022

Rev Esp Enferm Dig

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D.M.A contributed to data collection, database generation, statistical analysis, writing and editing of the manuscript. F.B.Z assisted with data collection and database generation. F.D.F assisted with data collection from the laboratory and sample analysis. M.J.M.A, L.G.S and V.P.P. contributed to the screening and sample collection from the drug treatment centres. F.G.N collaborated with the analysis of the samples. M.H.G. contributed to the project design, coordination and final review and manuscript approval.

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Epidemiological Modeling of the Impact of Public Health Policies on Hepatitis C: Protocol for a Gamification Tool Targeting Microelimination (Preprint)

Baptista-Leite,

Lopes,

Vandewalle

et al. 2022

Preprint

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BACKGROUND Hepatitis C is a disease with a strong social component, as its main transmission route is via blood, making it associated with lifestyle. Therefore, it is suitable to be worked on from the perspective of public health policy, which still has a lot of room to explore and improve, contrary to diagnoses and treatments, which are already very refined and effective. OBJECTIVE An interactive gamified policy tool, designated as Let’s End HepC (LEHC), was created to understand the impact of policies related to hepatitis C on the disease’s epidemiology on a yearly basis until 2030. METHODS To this end, an innovative epidemiological model was developed, integrating Markov chains to model the natural history of the disease and adaptive conjoint analysis to reflect the degree of application of each of the 24 public health policies included in the model. This double imputation model makes it possible to assess a set of indicators such as liver transplant, incidence, and deaths year by year until 2030 in different risk groups. Populations at a higher risk were integrated into the model to understand the specific epidemiological dynamics within the total population of each country and within segments that comprise people who have received blood products, prisoners, people who inject drugs, people infected through vertical transmission, and the remaining population. RESULTS The model has already been applied to a group of countries, and studies in 5 of these countries have already been concluded, showing results very close to those obtained through other forms of evaluation. CONCLUSIONS The LEHC model allows the simulation of different degrees of implementation of each policy and thus the verification of its epidemiological impact on each studied population. The gamification feature allows assessing the adequate fulfillment of the World Health Organization goals for the elimination of hepatitis C by 2030. LEHC supports health decision makers and people who practice patient advocacy in making decisions based on science, and because LEHC is democratically shared, it ends up contributing to the increase of citizenship in health. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR1-10.2196/38521

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Fighting Hepatitis C in a COVID-19 ecosystem. Public health policies are needed more than ever

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Epidemiological Modeling of the Impact of Public Health Policies on Hepatitis C: Protocol for a Gamification Tool Targeting Microelimination

Epidemiological Modeling of the Impact of Public Health Policies on Hepatitis C: Protocol for a Gamification Tool Targeting Microelimination

Hepatitis C diagnosis slowdown in high-prevalence groups and using decentralised diagnostic strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic

Epidemiological Modeling of the Impact of Public Health Policies on Hepatitis C: Protocol for a Gamification Tool Targeting Microelimination (Preprint)

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