Finding ways to make sure that people with hepatitis C get the treatment they need

🧪 What was the study about?

This study evaluated a national programme in England designed to find people who had previously been diagnosed with hepatitis C but were no longer in care, and to help them access treatment. It focused on individuals with historic positive test results who may have missed newer, highly effective antiviral treatments that can cure the infection.

❓ Why is this important?

Hepatitis C can lead to serious conditions such as liver disease, liver cancer, and early death, but it is now curable with modern medicines. Despite this, many people who were diagnosed in the past are no longer engaged with healthcare and remain untreated. Re-engaging these individuals is essential to improve their health and to help achieve the global goal of eliminating hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030.

🔍 What did we do?

Data from a large national re-engagement exercise led by the UK Health Security Agency and the NHS was analysed. National surveillance data was used to identify people with a previous positive hepatitis C test between 1996 and 2017. The data was linked to multiple healthcare datasets to refine the list and shared with regional clinical networks to contact these individuals. People were offered confirmatory testing, clinical assessment, and treatment, and outcomes such as treatment uptake and infection status were measured.

📊 Key findings

Out of over 176,000 recorded hepatitis C cases, about 55,000 individuals were included in the re-engagement programme after data cleaning. Following the intervention, around 13.4% of people started treatment and 11.6% were confirmed to be hepatitis C negative, often without a previous treatment record. While the programme successfully identified and treated some individuals, a large proportion of eligible people did not engage or receive treatment.

💡 What do these findings mean?

The findings suggest that large-scale, data-driven re-engagement programmes can successfully reconnect some people with care and contribute to hepatitis C elimination efforts. However, they also show that many individuals remain unreached, meaning additional strategies, such as targeted outreach and improved engagement approaches, are needed. Overall, the study highlights both the value and the limitations of relying on routine data to bring people back into care.

Related publication not already linked to project:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-hepatitis-c-patient-re-engagement-exercise