Progress towards eliminating viral hepatitis in Quebec

In our latest article, we shared some information on progress towards the elimination of viral hepatitis in Canada and provided the link (now available in French only). available in French) for the Hepatitis Action Canada (AHC) report. In this World Hepatitis Day, we wanted to take a look back at this topic with a focus on Quebec.

The AHC report is around forty pages long. It begins, of course, with several pages of background information.

Quickly, it puts us in context. Canada signed the WHO Global Health Sector Strategy for Viral Hepatitis (2016-2021). Several documents have since been released to support and expand on this document and its goals, including
- The Public Health Agency of Canada's Framework for Action (2018) and Action Plan (2019);
– The “Guiding model to inform hepatitis C elimination efforts in Canada”. (2019) produced by Canadian Hepatitis C Network and several partners.
L’AHC a regroupé les objectifs dans ces documents et s’est basé sur ceux-ci pour établir les avancements en matière d’hépatite C. Ces objectifs sont présentés en détail dans le Tableau 1 de la page 5 du rapport.

AHC revient ensuite sur le rôle que peut jouer le gouvernement fédéral et présente un aperçu comparatif des progrès réalisés (comme sur le tableau dans our previous article). This is followed by more detailed analyses: one page for each province and territory (page 21 below for Quebec), and one page for federal and provincial correctional facilities.

The report ends on a positive note, with a presentation of the strengths and interesting trends that each province could learn from, followed by ten pages of methodology and references.

The recent introduction of the "online portal for submitting HCV drug claims to the RAMQ, which immediately accepts claims from treatment-naïve patients without cirrhosis" (page 26) is a positive development, although Quebec is behind schedule. This system greatly facilitates the reimbursement process and is welcomed by all HCV treatment prescribers in the province.

Posted: July 28, 2021