To the Editor:Hepatitis caused by the hepatitis C virus(HCV)infection has a long course,insidious onset,and slow progression.Patients with hepatitis C are often in the late stages by the time of diagnoses.The long-ter...To the Editor:Hepatitis caused by the hepatitis C virus(HCV)infection has a long course,insidious onset,and slow progression.Patients with hepatitis C are often in the late stages by the time of diagnoses.The long-term chronic damage caused by HCV leads to impaired liver function,portal hypertension,liver fibrosis,cirrhosis and even hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)[1,2].Therefore,it is imperative to improve the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C.In 2016,World Health Organization(WHO)set the goal of“eliminating viral hep-atitis as a public health hazard by 2030”.Some associations intro-duced guidelines for hepatitis C screening and treatment.After a period of effort,in 2020,the number of people receiving treatment for chronic HCV infection had significantly increased compared to the number in 2015,and the HCV-related mortality rate had de-creased.Nevertheless,nearly 80%of infected individuals have not been timely diagnosed and treated[3,4].Like many other coun-tries,China still faces a significant gap in achieving the goal of hep-atitis C elimination,and some literature indicated limited public awareness and high medication costs might slow the progress of policy implementation[5-7].How to effectively improve the diag-nosis and treatment of hepatitis C has garnered widespread global attention.展开更多
基金supported by a grant from the R&D Program of China(2022YFC2304500).
文摘To the Editor:Hepatitis caused by the hepatitis C virus(HCV)infection has a long course,insidious onset,and slow progression.Patients with hepatitis C are often in the late stages by the time of diagnoses.The long-term chronic damage caused by HCV leads to impaired liver function,portal hypertension,liver fibrosis,cirrhosis and even hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)[1,2].Therefore,it is imperative to improve the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C.In 2016,World Health Organization(WHO)set the goal of“eliminating viral hep-atitis as a public health hazard by 2030”.Some associations intro-duced guidelines for hepatitis C screening and treatment.After a period of effort,in 2020,the number of people receiving treatment for chronic HCV infection had significantly increased compared to the number in 2015,and the HCV-related mortality rate had de-creased.Nevertheless,nearly 80%of infected individuals have not been timely diagnosed and treated[3,4].Like many other coun-tries,China still faces a significant gap in achieving the goal of hep-atitis C elimination,and some literature indicated limited public awareness and high medication costs might slow the progress of policy implementation[5-7].How to effectively improve the diag-nosis and treatment of hepatitis C has garnered widespread global attention.
