Holding government accountable.

Canada's Promise
In May 2016, Canada signed on to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s first ever Global Viral Hepatitis Strategy, with the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.

Yet the federal government has been clear that the provinces and territories will be accountable to their citizens to meet this target, not the federal government. This progress report is a tool to use in providing that accountability.
​

Get the Report

Register for the Webinar

Six Metrics To Measure Our Progress
While this report does not evaluate all the targets set in the various strategies and blueprints, several have been included within the key metrics (below) on which to evaluate progress in Canada. We selected these metrics based on the availability of data, as well as the centrality of the target to the overall elimination goals.

Current Status

Report Contents

Download the full report.

OUR ASKS: ​Recommended Next Steps

Federal

• Engage manufacturers of point-of-care testing technologies to bring these tests to Canada.
• Set strategies, targets, and indicators in consultation with priority populations and using a health equity lens, to measure progress in elimination of viral hepatitis in the jurisdictions that are under federal purview: federal prisons, Indigenous peoples, and some newcomers.
• Fund and expand harm reduction programming in all Canadian jurisdictions.
• Update HCV testing guidelines to include birth-cohort testing for 1945-1975.
• Fund and increase efforts to collect updated HBV and HCV prevalence estimates for all Canadian provinces and territories.

​Provincial/Territorial

• Implement HCV RNA reflex testing where not yet in place.
• Develop and implement provincial/territorial elimination plans that includes targets, in consultation with priority populations and using a health equity lens.
• Remove unnecessary tests such as fibrosis stage tests, genotype tests, and 2nd positive RNA test for DAA reimbursement, and implement mechanism for same-day approval for DAA reimbursement requests.
• Increase needle and syringe distribution in collaboration with community organizations.
• Provide HBV vaccination for all babies at birth.

Corrections

• Shift healthcare responsibility to Ministry of Health in provincials and territories where this has not yet been done.
• Offer HCV and HBV testing and treatment in all provincial and territorial correctional facilities.
• Increase access to prevention measures including needle syringe programs, opioid agonist therapy, and overdose prevention sites to all federal and provincial corrections facilities.

Data Gaps

Prevalence

• It was difficult to determine what the annual HCV treatment initiation target for each P/T should be, as there are few recent published sub-national prevalence estimates.
• HCV and HBV prevalence estimates should be updated urgently for all P/Ts.

Prescribing Counts

• AHC had to pay to license the prescribing count data- this is expensive and there are several limitations to that data
• The IQVIA data is based on patient counts but it slightly over- and under-estimates the number of patients in different provinces
• No prescribing count data was available for the territories

How will we know if we have eliminated viral hepatitis in 2030 without accurate data?

We plan to update this report every two years until 2030.

​If you have suggestions on how to improve this report in the future, or if you are undertaking research that will help address the data gaps identified in this report, please email actionhepatitiscanada@gmail.com.