Manchester has achieved hepatitis C micro-elimination within its drug treatment services, marking a significant step towards eliminating the virus as a public health threat.
Micro-elimination is a targeted approach to tackling hepatitis C in communities where the virus is most common. By making testing and treatment easier to access, Manchester has been able to identify and cure more people with hepatitis C, reducing the spread of infection and helping to eliminate the virus as a public health threat.
Hepatitis C is one of the most common blood-borne viruses in the UK. It is spread through contact with infected blood, most commonly through sharing injecting equipment. If left untreated, it can cause serious liver disease including cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Hepatitis C can now be cured in the vast majority of people with a short course of tablets that are highly effective and usually cause few side effects.
This achievement has been made possible through close collaboration between the Infectious Diseases and Hepatology teams at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), Change Grow Live, The Hep C Trust, Gilead Sciences and the Hepatitis C Greater Manchester Operational Delivery Network.
Dr Celia Hogan, Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is truly remarkable. I like to think I’m not ageing, but I remember using the old Hep C treatments, and if you’d told me 15 years ago we would be here, I simply wouldn’t have believed you.
“What has been achieved here cannot be overstated. To reach micro-elimination in a large, complex city like Manchester, particularly within such vulnerable and hard to reach populations, is an exceptional accomplishment. This demonstrates what can be achieved with a committed workforce, strong teamwork, the right investment, and an unwavering focus on patient need.
“The populations we serve are often those who face the greatest barriers to care, and yet this programme has successfully engaged, treated and cured patients who historically would have been left behind.
It is a huge achievement, and one that everyone involved should feel incredibly proud of. I am certainly very proud to work alongside such innovative people.”
Dr F Javier Vilar, Consultant in Infectious Diseases at MFT, said: “Over the last few months, the team have embraced fine tuning their blood-borne virus testing and treatment pathways to make the service delivery model a robust, whole team and system approach alongside excellent collaboration by our partners.
“Our hugely proactive embedded admin team has also been critical coordinating care and find out patients popping into different parts of the system. Our hugely helpful pharmacists have allowed us to treat people safely with minimal information. Importantly, lives have been saved along this journey of achieving this milestone.”
The success reflects the strength of MFT’s Blood-Borne Viruses Testing Programme and the commitment of local teams to ensure people are offered testing and supported into treatment. Many of those reached through this work are people who use drugs and may also be experiencing homelessness, making the achievement particularly significant.
Working together, partners across Manchester have:
- Offered hepatitis C testing to 100% of people accessing local drug treatment services
- Ensured that 98.4% of people with a history of injecting drug use have been tested
- Ensured that 90.07% of people with ongoing risk factors have been tested within the last 12 months
- Successfully linked 97.4% of people diagnosed with hepatitis C into care and started treatment
This achievement demonstrates how partnership working, targeted outreach and easy access to testing and treatment can help find people living with hepatitis C, support them into care and prevent future infections.