WHO has made available the membership of the Guidelines Development Group (GDG) for key updates of the 2018 WHO “Guidelines for the Care and Treatment of persons diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C virus infection" and the 2017 WHO “guidelines on hepatitis B and C testing”. This guideline update will be included in the planned 2022 “Consolidated Guidelines on Hepatitis prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care” which will incorporate both existing and new recommendations relating to chronic hepatitis B (HBV) and C virus (HCV) infection.
The GDG group will meet virtually on the 18-21 October 2021 across seven sessions.
The main objectives of this HCV update are:
- to update key recommendations in HCV service delivery (day 1);
- HCV diagnostics (day 2 and 3) (point-of-care HCV viral load, limit of detection of viral load assays as test of cure, reflex viral load testing); and
- treatment for hepatitis C infected adolescents and children (day 4).
This represents Part 1 and Part 2 of planned updated HCV guidelines recommendations. Part 3 HCV guidelines update on HCV self-testing guidance was completed in July 2021. Part 4 update to HBV guidelines updates will take place in early 2022.
The new 2022 WHO "Consolidated guidelines for prevention, testing, care and treatment of viral hepatitis B and C" will incorporate existing and updated (Parts 1-4) guidelines recommendations.
In line with WHO policy on conflict of interest, members of the public and interested organizations can access the biographies of the GDG members and inform WHO of their views about them. All comments should be sent by email to [email protected] by 14 October 2021.