Model Towards Elimination of Hepatitis C Infection in Egypt: Feasibility and Effectiveness in 73 Villages

November 22, 2019 updated by: Egyptian Liver Hospital

Educate, Test and Treat Model Towards Elimination of Hepatitis C Infection in Egypt: Feasibility and Effectiveness in 73 Villages

Background: The global response to the HCV infection epidemic has been transformed by the availability of low-cost curative short course direct acting antiviral (DAA) therapy. Egypt has one of the highest burdens of HCV infection worldwide, and a large treatment programme, but reaching rural communities represents a major challenge. We report the feasibility and effectiveness of a comprehensive community-based HCV prevention, testing and treatment model in 73 villages across Egypt, with the goal to eliminate infection from all adult villagers.

Methods: An HCV "educate, test and treat" programme was implemented in 73 villages across 7 governorates in Egypt between 06/2015 and 06/2018. The programme model comprised community mobilization facilitated by a network of village promoters to support the education, test and treat campaign as well as fund raising in the local community; a comprehensive testing, linkage to care and treatment of all eligible villagers aged 12 to 80 years using HCV antibody and HBsAg rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), HCV RNA confirmation of positive cases, staging of liver disease using transient elastography (FibroScan), treatment with 12 or 24 weeks of a direct acting antiviral (DAA) regimen according to national standard of HCV care, and an assessment of cure at 12 weeks after completion of treatment (SVR12); and an education campaign to raise awareness and disseminate messages about safer practices to reduce transmission through public events, promotional materials and house-to-house visits. Key outcomes assessed in each village were: uptake of serological HCV and HBV testing, linkage to assessment and HCV viral load confirmation, uptake of treatment, and SVR12.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Background: The global response to the HCV infection epidemic has been transformed by the availability of low-cost curative short course direct acting antiviral (DAA) therapy. Egypt has one of the highest burdens of HCV infection worldwide, and a large treatment programme, but reaching rural communities represents a major challenge. We report the feasibility and effectiveness of a comprehensive community-based HCV prevention, testing and treatment model in 73 villages across Egypt, with the goal to eliminate infection from all adult villagers.

Methods: An HCV "educate, test and treat" programme was implemented in 73 villages across 7 governorates in Egypt between 06/2015 and 06/2018. The programme model comprised community mobilization facilitated by a network of village promoters to support the education, test and treat campaign as well as fund raising in the local community; a comprehensive testing, linkage to care and treatment of all eligible villagers aged 12 to 80 years using HCV antibody and HBsAg rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), HCV RNA confirmation of positive cases, staging of liver disease using transient elastography (FibroScan), treatment with 12 or 24 weeks of a direct acting antiviral (DAA) regimen according to national standard of HCV care, and an assessment of cure at 12 weeks after completion of treatment (SVR12); and an education campaign to raise awareness and disseminate messages about safer practices to reduce transmission through public events, promotional materials and house-to-house visits. Key outcomes assessed in each village were: uptake of serological HCV and HBV testing, linkage to assessment and HCV viral load confirmation, uptake of treatment, and SVR12.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

221855

Phase

  • Phase 4

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

12 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT, CHILD)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • persons aged between 12 to 80 years across the 73 villages eligible for inclusion in the test and treat program.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • aged below 12

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: SCREENING
  • Allocation: NA
  • Interventional Model: SINGLE_GROUP
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
OTHER: Screening
HCV antibody and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) rapid diagnostic tests
Treatment with different regiments with DAAs

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
incidince of HCV in population
Time Frame: 3 years
incidence of HCV hidden population confirmed by Rt-PCR
3 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

June 1, 2015

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

June 1, 2018

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

December 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 20, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 22, 2019

First Posted (ACTUAL)

November 26, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

November 26, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 22, 2019

Last Verified

November 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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