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©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2019; 25(11): 1327-1340
Published online Mar 21, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i11.1327
Published online Mar 21, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i11.1327
Economic evaluation of the hepatitis C elimination strategy in Greece in the era of affordable direct-acting antivirals
Ilias Gountas, Vana Sypsa, Angelos Hatzakis, Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
Ilias Gountas, Angelos Hatzakis, Hellenic Scientific Society for the Study of AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Athens 11527, Greece
George Papatheodoridis, Department of Gastroenterology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Laiko General Hospital, Athens 11527, Greece
Kyriakos Souliotis, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Peloponnese, Korinthos 20100, Greece
Kostas Athanasakis, Department of Health Economics, National School of Public Health, Athens 11521, Greece
Homie Razavi, Center for Disease Analysis, Lafayette, CO 80026, United States
Author contributions: Gountas I and Hatzakis A conceived the study; Gountas I performed the modelling and drafted the manuscript; Hatzakis A coordinated the study; Sypsa V, Papatheodoridis G, Souliotis K, Athanasakis K and Razavi H provided essential inputs and contributed extensively to writing the manuscript; All authors contributed to model interpretation and approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Angelos Hatzakis, PhD, Doctor, Senior Researcher, Senior Scientist, Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 22 Mikras Asias Str., Athens 11527, Greece. ahatzak@med.uoa.gr
Telephone: +30-210-7474058 Fax: +30-210-7474058
Received: October 16, 2018
Peer-review started: October 16, 2018
First decision: December 5, 2018
Revised: February 20, 2019
Accepted: February 22, 2019
Article in press: February 22, 2019
Published online: March 21, 2019
Peer-review started: October 16, 2018
First decision: December 5, 2018
Revised: February 20, 2019
Accepted: February 22, 2019
Article in press: February 22, 2019
Published online: March 21, 2019
Core Tip
Core tip: Elimination of hepatitis C virus (commonly known as HCV) cannot be achieved in Greece without the implementation of large awareness and screening programs, as treatment coverage will be suboptimal. To achieve the elimination goals, 90000 patients need to be treated by 2030. The overall cumulative cost of elimination would range from 3.2-3.4 billion euros by 2030. The HCV elimination strategy in Greece is feasible and cost-saving despite the uncertainty of the future cost of the direct-acting antivirals.