Why a Belgian hepatitis C day ? (1)

Hepatitis C is a major health care problem affecting 3% of the world population and 100,000 people in Belgium. This prevalence is 10 times higher than that of HIV (1,2) and recent data from France (3) reveal that, actually, patients with hepatitis C have a 2.5 higher risk of death due to their disease than those suffering from AIDS. If no action plan is organized on a national basis by the various actors of health care, we will have to face, given the present trends, a dramatic increase of the bur- den of hepatitis C in the next 15 years, due to the com- plications of cirrhosis and hepatocarcinoma, leading to significant morbidity and mortality and increase of the indications for liver transplantation. This will of course be accompanied by an increase of the health costs whereas organized and planned strategies focused on prevention, screening of high risk groups, optimal and early management of patients who can benefit the most of the antiviral treatment (which can now cure the dis- ease in 50 to 60% of the cases) have been demonstrated to be cost-effective (4).