[Challenges to reduce mortality due to hepatitis C: improving accessibility to therapy and compliance]

Current therapies with pegylated interferon and ribavirin are effective to eradicate the virus C. Improvements are foreseen in the near future with combination of the current treatment with antiviral therapies (antiproteases, antipolymerases). Eradication of the virus, when obtained, has a favorable impact on an individual basis. However, to reduce the mortality related to the virus C at a population level, an important point is the accessibility to therapy. It has been calculated that the impact of current management to reduce mortality is minimal, as compared to the absence of treatment, due to a poor accessibility to therapy. To obtain a significant additional reduction of mortality, a better screening, a better access to the threatment are crucial.