Analysis Of Hepatitis C Cascade Of Care In Qatar, 2017: A Teaching Case Study

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment is available free of charge for all patients in Qatar. Therefore, it is critical to identify approaches that will lead to a diagnosis of chronic HCV infection earlier in the course of disease, place and retain them on treatment. These are the elements of the cascade of care framework of the global strategy to eliminate HCV. There is a need to tailor HCV screening and treatment policies to a country-specific epidemiological context to reduce HCV burden. Robust surveillance systems and data are needed to inform these policies. In this teaching case study, the trainees will learn how to explore surveillance data and measure performance in screening, diagnosing, treating and retaining HCV cases using a cascade of care framework. They will learn how to plan and design interventions to eliminate HCV. This case study is designed for the training of basic level field epidemiology trainees or any other health care workers working in public health-related fields. It can be administered in 2-3 hours. Used as adjunct training material, the case study provides the trainees with competencies in analyzing HCV data using the cascade of care framework.