Expression of interest: Hepatitis Evaluations to Amplify Testing (HEAT) project
The Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination (CGHE) at the Task Force for Global Health is currently soliciting interest from national hepatitis programs to participate in the Hepatitis C Evaluations to Amplify Testing (HEAT) project. Increasing hepatitis treatment to the levels required for elimination will require substantial scale up of HBV and HCV testing to expand the pool of individuals who are diagnosed and can be linked to care. However, in 2017, more than 85% of the approximately 324 M persons living with HBV and HCV were unaware of their infection. To overcome this diagnosis challenge, known as the “Missing Millions,” countries will have to develop appropriate testing policies, technologies and implementation strategies to ensure elimination is programmatically and economically feasible. Ultimately, scale up of hepatitis testing will require a mix of laboratory and point-of-care based testing services which have different pros and cons in terms of throughput and accessibility. Planning and implementation of the most efficient and cost-effective mix of hepatitis testing technologies is dependent on the epidemiologic situation, the current capacity for laboratory and point of-care testing, and the education and skills of clinicians and outreach workers. As a first step, CGHE is launching the HEAT project to support hepatitis C elimination programs in developing elimination-ready testing policies and strategies. For more information on this project, visit: https://www.globalhep.org/news/call-expression-interest-hepatitis-evaluations-amplify-testing-heat-project