Eradication of HCV Infection in Vorarlberg with DAA Therapy. Data about the period between 2015 and 2019

Background:

The actual standard of care for the therapy of HCV are Direct Acting Antivirals (DAA's) This therapy has an estimated healing rate of 95%. On that background, the intention of the WHO is to cure the infected population within the next 10 years.

Methods:

Our department is the major institution in Vorarlberg, where DAA treatment is prescribed. We therefore established a local HCV-registry and documented data of 182 HCV positive patients treated at our outpatient department. Patients were treated sith DAA's according to the 8 or 12 weeks protocols between October 2015 and February 2019. We documented duration of infection, grade of liver fibrosis/cirrhosis, presence of hepatocellular carcinoma, precedent therapy with Interferon and Ribavirin and virus status before and 3 month after the end of the therapy.

Results:

Of the 182 enrolled Patients, 168 were treated, 14 refused treatment. Of the 168 treated 163 (97%) have been completely healed. 5 (3%) had a relapse of infection, but had a successfully salvage treamtent within the next months.

Conclusions:

We confirm the high efficacy of DAA-treatment in our registry, including 168 patients, which represents 10 to 20% of the estimated HCV positive patients population of Vorarlberg. The healing rate in our registry is slightly higher than described in the literature and the relapse rate was lower than expected.