The role of a hepatitis C virus vaccine: modelling the benefits alongside direct-acting antiviral treatments

Scott, Nick, McBryde, Emma, Vickerman, Peter, Martin, Natasha K., Stone, Jack, Drummer, Heidi, and Hellard, Margaret (2015) The role of a hepatitis C virus vaccine: modelling the benefits alongside direct-acting antiviral treatments. BMC Medicine, 13 (198). pp. 1-12.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Published Version) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (1MB) | Preview
View at Publisher Website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12916-015-044...
 
51
899


Abstract

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination is being seriously considered globally. Current elimination models require a combination of highly effective HCV treatment and harm reduction, but high treatment costs make such strategies prohibitively expensive. Vaccines should play a key role in elimination but their best use alongside treatments is unclear. For three vaccines with different efficacies we used a mathematical model to estimate the additional reduction in HCV prevalence when vaccinating after treatment; and to identify in which settings vaccines could most effectively reduce the number of treatments required to achieve fixed reductions in HCV prevalence among people who inject drugs (PWID).

Methods: A deterministic model of HCV transmission among PWID was calibrated for settings with 25, 50 and 75% chronic HCV prevalence among PWID, stratified by high-risk or low-risk PWID. For vaccines with 30, 60 or 90% efficacies, different rates of treatment and vaccination were introduced. We compared prevalence reductions achieved by vaccinating after treatment to prevent reinfection and vaccinating independently of treatment history in the community; and by allocating treatments and vaccinations to specific risk groups and proportionally across risk groups.

Results: Vaccinating after treatment was minimally different to vaccinating independently of treatment history, and allocating treatments and vaccinations to specific risk groups was minimally different to allocating them proportionally across risk groups. Vaccines with 30 or 60% efficacy provided greater additional prevalence reduction per vaccination in a setting with 75% chronic HCV prevalence among PWID than a 90% efficacious vaccine in settings with 25 or 50% chronic HCV prevalence among PWID.

Conclusions: Vaccinating after treatment is an effective and practical method of administration. In settings with high chronic HCV prevalence among PWID, even modest coverage with a low-efficacy vaccine could provide significant additional prevalence reduction beyond treatment alone, and would likely reduce the cost of achieving prevalence reduction targets.

Item ID: 42211
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1741-7015
Additional Information:

© 2015 Scott et al. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Funders: Victorian Operational Infrastructure Support Program, Burnet Institute (BI), National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
Projects and Grants: BI Jim and Margaret Beever Fellowship, NIDA R01DA037773-01A1NKM
Date Deposited: 04 May 2016 03:48
FoR Codes: 11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1103 Clinical Sciences > 110309 Infectious Diseases @ 40%
11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1117 Public Health and Health Services > 111706 Epidemiology @ 40%
16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1605 Policy and Administration > 160508 Health Policy @ 20%
SEO Codes: 92 HEALTH > 9201 Clinical Health (Organs, Diseases and Abnormal Conditions) > 920109 Infectious Diseases @ 50%
92 HEALTH > 9202 Health and Support Services > 920207 Health Policy Evaluation @ 50%
Downloads: Total: 899
Last 12 Months: 90
More Statistics

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page Item Control Page