Hepatitis C Elimination in the Netherlands (CELINE): How nationwide retrieval of lost to follow-up hepatitis C patients contributes to micro-elimination.

Background & Aims: The number of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients who have been lost to follow-up (LTFU) is high and threatens HCV elimination. Micro-elimination focusing on the LTFU population is a promising strategy for low-endemic countries like the Netherlands (HCV prevalence 0.16%).

Estimating regional prevalence of chronic hepatitis C with a capture-recapture analysis.

Background: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a candidate disease for micro-elimination. Accurate baseline HCV prevalence estimation is essential to monitor progress to micro-elimination but can be methodologically challenging in low-endemic regions like the Netherlands due to lack of disaggregated data by age or risk-groups on the number of chronic HCV patients (i.e.

The balancing perspective of hard-to-reach hepatitis C patients who were lost to follow-up: A qualitative study.

Background: In the foreseeable future, patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) with good healthcare access will all have been cured and the lost to follow-up (LFU) HCV-population will increasingly exist of hard-to-reach patients. Efforts to retrieve these individuals with HCV have been moderately successful so far. A deeper understanding of the reasons for loss to follow-up and the underlying processes is lacking.

Retrieval of chronic hepatitis C patients. A manifesto for action to eliminate hepatitis C in the Netherlands: the CELINE project.

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global public health issue, which is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. The development of direct acting antivirals (DAAs) has transformed treatment: they offer us highly-effective therapy with superior tolerability compared to interferon-containing regimens. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) therefore adopted several ambitious viral hepatitis elimination targets, aiming for a 90% reduction in new infections and a 65% reduction in mortality by 2030.

Retrieval of chronic hepatitis B patients in the Utrecht region in the Netherlands.

Background: In the Netherlands, approximately 200 patients die annually from a chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection, even though effective antiviral treatment is available. There are an estimated 49,000 Dutch CHB patients. Many of these patients have been lost to follow-up (LFU) over time.