Forward screening hepatitis C “To eradicate infection”, focus at Icar

Padua. Hepatitis C screening represents “an important job: we have become aware of the concrete opportunity to eradicate the infection in Italy. Despite some defects, which are already known, screening still has the goal of eradicating it. We have chosen target populations at risk, such as substance users or the prison population, and we have done something that had never been done before in Italy. And the reference numbers for screening are very large, even though we can always do more”.

Miriam Lichtner, full professor of Infectious Diseases at Sapienza University and head of the infectious disease department at Sant'Andrea Hospital in Rome, points this out on the sidelines of the 17th National ICAR Congress (Italian Conference on AIDS and Antiviral Research), currently underway at the Padua Fair.

As part of the screening, Lichtner continues, "many people were also treated who did not know they had the infection, which initially, for many years, presents itself in an asymptomatic form. This is why it is very important to provide information".

Alongside the screening process, there is the parallel Fast-Track Cities plan, “more at the level of associations, which — explains the infectious disease specialist — brings together a nice network dedicated to migrants, in particular, and to populations that are a bit on the margins. It is always a delicate situation, even though we know full well that infectious diseases certainly do not derive from migrants, for example”.

There are countries that have higher endemic rates, so in this sense it is necessary to provide support in accessing treatment, and precisely "for hepatitis C this is stringent, given that we have a treatment, very concentrated in time, which in a few months manages to completely eradicate the infection, as our experiences on the subject also show" in the Latina area, in particular.

Annamaria Cattelan, professor at the University of Padua and director of the Infectious Diseases complex at the Padua Hospital Trust, agrees that “screening for hepatitis C is extremely important, we have already been doing it for several years at a national level and also here in the Veneto Region”, where an awareness campaign is still underway.

It tries to track down hidden infections especially in certain segments of the population, "such as - the professor continues - those who have used or use substances, those who are in prison or migrants, in particular conditions from a social point of view. We are working well and finding new cases, which are taken care of immediately. This is in fact a crucial aspect: doing the test has great value, but then it must be followed, if necessary, by the possibility of a therapy that allows treatment and recovery from hepatitis C".

In all of this, regional or local screening initiatives stand out, such as the one entitled “Test in the City”, which is holding court: “we have the possibility of carrying out free and anonymous tests for sexually transmitted infections”, starting with hepatitis, HIV and syphilis.

Confirmation on the Fast-Track City path — and not only — Paolo Meli, pedagogist of the Don Giuseppe Monticelli cooperative and coordinator of Bergamo Fast-Track: "there emerges a sold out or almost sold out of the screening opportunity, so it becomes almost more a problem of supply than of access to the service".

The preliminary analysis today concerns up to 2.000 people tested in the cities involved and, pending further data, speaks of a significant incidence. It is close to 3% grouping hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, with an emphasis on people who use substances”, returning in the latter case to historical aspects that now seemed to belong to the past.