AASLD develops evidence-based practice guidelines and practice guidances which are updated regularly by a multi-disciplinary panel of experts, including hepatologists, and include recommendations of preferred approaches to the diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive aspects of care.
Hepatitis C
Practice Guidance
Recommendations for Testing, Managing, and Treating Hepatitis C Virus Infection [updated December 2019]
The advent of safe, well-tolerated, and highly efficacious (>95% cure rate) direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has ushered in an era in which elimination of hepatitis C is conceivable. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed a global health sector strategy to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030 and developed an action plan to facilitate this goal. In response to the WHO action plan, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) developed a US strategy for the elimination of hepatitis C. Key elements of the elimination plan include improved detection of undiagnosed cases, increased linkage and access to care for newly diagnosed persons, and expanded treatment access. Many of the recommendations included in the latest update to the HCV guidance and highlighted herein align with and support the goals of the NASEM and WHO strategies to move from control to eventual elimination of hepatitis C. Topics addressed include universal and risk-based hepatitis C screening, simplified treatment algorithms for treatment-naive adults without cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis, hepatitis C management in the pediatric population, acute hepatitis C testing and management, and transplantation of organs from HCV-viremic donors into HCV negative recipients.
Supplemental Materials
The AASLD and the Infectious Diseases Society of America HCV guidance website disseminates up-to-date, peer-reviewed, unbiased, evidence-based recommendations to aid clinicians making decisions regarding the testing, management, and treatment of HCV infection. Using a web-based system enables timely and nimble distribution of the HCV guidance, which is periodically updated in near real time as necessitated by emerging research data, recommendations from public health agencies, the availability of therapeutic agents, or other significant developments affecting the rapidly evolving hepatitis C arena.