Theme: Models of Care Year: 2024
Background: Since 2016 Gilead Sciences has supported over 120 studies in more than 30 countries focused on HCV elimination under the LEGA-C (Local Elimination programs leading to Global Action in HCV) program. In 2020, EASL Guidelines on HCV management identified patients who will benefit from a more streamlined care pathway (e.g., people who use drugs-PWUD).
Description of program: We aim to describe the studies run under the LEGA-C umbrella in Europe, focusing on populations historically less engaged in healthcare. We extracted information on variables: country, type of population included, number of individuals reached, use of a simplified care pathway, year of communication/publication, and the impact factor (IF).
Effectiveness: 32 (27%) of the studies were conducted across 12 European countries (Austria, France, Denmark, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, UK) as of July 2022. In these 32 studies, 25 (73%) focused on special populations (n=8,935), including persons who use/inject drugs (n=13 studies), men who have sex with men (n=7), inmates (n=5), migrants (n=4), homeless (n=2), psychiatric patients (n=1), and sex workers (n=1). At the analysis time, 19 out of the 32 studies were presented/published: 6 studies in 2018-19, 2 in 2020, and 11 in 2021-22. During 2021-2022, there was an increase in studies including patients who were homeless, sex workers, in prison, and PWUD. There were 6 studies involving special populations and cited 48 times with a mean IF of 4.02. Among the 32 studies, the test and treat approach (n=18) was the most frequent, followed by the screening/monitoring simplification approach (n=9).
Conclusion and next steps:
The LEGA-C initiative has supported 32 studies in Europe, with 25 focused on streamlining the care pathway for a variety of populations with HCV infection. A multi-stakeholder collaboration plays a crucial role in the goal of achieving the elimination of HCV in Europe.