Gaspar R, Liberal R, Tavares J, Morgado R, Macedo G. HIPPOCRATES® project: A proof of concept of a collaborative program for hepatitis C virus micro-elimination in a prison setting. World J Hepatol 2020; 12(12): 1314-1325 [PMID: 33442457 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v12.i12.1314]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Rui Gaspar, MD, Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, Centro Hospitalar de São João, Porto 4200, Portugal. ruilopesgaspar@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Rui Gaspar, Guilherme Macedo, Department of Gastroenterology, Centro Hospitalar de São João, Porto 4200, Portugal
Rodrigo Liberal, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Centro Hospitalar de São João, Porto 4200, Portugal
Jorge Tavares, Rui Morgado, Estabelecimento Prisional do Porto, Porto 4200, Portugal
Author contributions: Gaspar R and Liberal R were responsible for the study design, acquisition and interpretation of data, drafting the manuscript, and statistical analysis; Tavares J and Morgado M were responsible for the study design; Macedo G was responsible for creating the project, study design, acquisition and interpretation of data and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Institutional review board statement: All procedures performed were in accordance and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards and ethical approval was obtained from Centro Hospitalar São João.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rui Gaspar, MD, Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, Centro Hospitalar de São João, Porto 4200, Portugal. ruilopesgaspar@gmail.com
Received: May 25, 2020 Peer-review started: May 25, 2020 First decision: June 4, 2020 Revised: August 13, 2020 Accepted: November 4, 2020 Article in press: November 4, 2020 Published online: December 27, 2020 Processing time: 205 Days and 18 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Hepatitis C is a curable infectious disease with high cure rates reaching almost 100% with the use of direct-acting antiviral agents. The World Health Organization defined the aim of achieving hepatitis C virus elimination by 2030. In the first phase, patients identified with hepatitis C virus infection were treated. Although, to achieve this ambitious goal, we had to reach difficult to access groups, such as persons who inject drugs (PWID) and prisoners. We developed a strategy where a medical team (2-3 doctors) from the hospital went to prison and was responsible for the outpatient clinics, liver elastography, and giving the medication on-site, increasing access to care by avoiding any need to move the patients outside the prison. This was so successful, reaching 99% of sustained virological response in a difficult to treat cohort, that a national program was created implementing our strategy. Therefore, in Portugal, every prisoner has access to treatment inside the prison.
