Hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects nearly 71 million people worldwide and is most commonly transmitted through the blood via injection drug use, contaminated blood transfusion, or unsafe health practices. Thus, most people infected by the virus were infected when the virus was not known about. It causes acute to chronic infection and may lead to fulminant hepatic failure in a few rare cases. Furthermore, as a leading cause of death due to cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma, the pathway to eradication of HCV is a worthy one but it precluded by the lack of access many people have to the drugs that can cure them of the virus. These drugs, like sofosbuvir, are incredibly expensive, but countries like Iceland are leading the world in making them available to those who need them. The TraP Hep C program in Iceland hopes to administer these curative drugs through government and private health organizations (and the penitentiary system) to hopefully eradicate the virus from the country by 2030. While ambitious, I think that the United States has much to learn from such endeavors.
-Andrew
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