Question reference: S5W-33375
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 18 November 2020
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Current status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 December 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to gather updated hepatitis C prevalence estimates in order to (a) inform targets for NHS boards for hepatitis C treatment and (b) measure progress towards hepatitis C elimination.
Answer
Public Health Scotland (PHS) are responsible for gathering data on the prevalence of Hepatitis C infection in Scotland.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, PHS have advised that the gathering of data on the prevalence of the HCV infected population in Scotland has been paused and will be resumed in 2021.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has had considerable impact on sexual health and blood borne viruses (SHBBV) services this year, the Scottish Government and partners remain committed to eliminating Hepatitis C by 2024.
We have made two commitments in our 2020-21 Programme for Government that will directly impact our progress towards eliminating Hepatitis C by 2024. The first is to develop a Recovery Plan for SHBBV services to help respond to the impacts of COVID-19 in 2021. The second is towork with the Scottish Health Protection Network, third sector and people who use services to understand how the Tayside approach, which resulted in the elimination of Hepatitis C 11 years ahead of the 2030 World Health Organisation target in that health board area, can be replicated across Scotland.