ArticleBMC public health2024
Hepatitis C screening in Lithuania: first-year results and scenarios for achieving WHO elimination targets.
Article in BMC public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Screening Program for Asymptomatic Hepatitis C: Uptake and Detection in the Marche Region of Italy.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Towards elimination of viral hepatitis in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia: insights from the Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board (VHPB).Clinical and experimental hepatology · 2026Review
- Prevalence and predictors of HCV infection among hospitalized psychiatric patients in Poland.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Hepatitis C Screening: A Health Technology Assessment.Ontario health technology assessment series · 2026Article
- National representative seroprevalence of viral hepatitis B, C, and D seromarkers in Ukraine, 2021.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2025Article
- Trends in Hospitalizations of Patients with Hepatitis C Virus in Poland between 2012 and 2022.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
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Abstract
backgroundThe World Health Organization (WHO) has outlined a set of targets to achieve eliminating hepatitis C by 2030. In May 2022, Lithuanian health authorities initiated a hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening program to start working towards elimination. In the program, bonus was given to general practitioners (GPs) to promote and conduct anti-HCV tests for two situations: (1) one time testing for individuals born in 1945-1994 and (2) annual HCV testing for persons who inject drugs or are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) regardless of age. This study aimed to model the current viral hepatitis C epidemiological status in Lithuania and to outline the requirements for WHO elimination targets using the first-year HCV screening results.
methodsIndividuals were invited to participate in the anti-HCV screening by GPs during routine visits. Patients who tested positive were then referred to a gastroenterologist or infectious disease doctor for further confirmatory testing. If a patient received a positive RNA test and a fibrosis staging result of ≥ F2, the doctor prescribed direct-acting antivirals. Information on the patients screened, diagnosed, and treated was obtained from the National Health Insurance Fund. The Markov disease progression model, developed by the CDA Foundation, was used to evaluate the screening program results and HCV elimination progress in Lithuania.
resultsBetween May 2022 and April 2023, 790,070 individuals underwent anti-HCV testing, with 11,943 individuals (1.5%) receiving positive results. Anti-HCV seroprevalence was found to be higher among males than females, 1.9% and 1.2%, respectively. Within the risk population tested, 2087 (31.1%) seropositive individuals were identified. When comparing the screening program results to WHO elimination targets through modelling, 2180 patients still need to be treated annually until 2030, along with expanding fibrosis restrictions. If an elimination approach was implemented, 1000 new infections would be prevented, while saving 150 lives and averting 90 decompensated cirrhosis cases and 110 hepatocellular carcinoma cases.
conclusionsDuring the first year of the Lithuanian screening program, GPs were able to screen 44% of the target population. However, the country will not meet elimination targets as it currently stands without increasing treatment levels and lifting fibrosis restrictions.
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