Press release issued:
22 October 2021
Pakistan has one of the highest rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the world, accounting for over ten per cent of global HCV infections. A new modelling study led by the University of Bristol, UK, suggests that achieving the World Health Organization goal of eliminating HCV as a public health problem by 2030 in Pakistan is likely to be highly cost-effective by 2030, cost-saving by 2031, and could deliver US$9.10 billion in savings to the Pakistan national economy by 2050.
The study, a collaboration across the University of Bristol, the Burnet Institute in Australia, and Aga Khan University in Pakistan, found that achieving HCV elimination in Pakistan could yield substantial societal health and economic benefits. These benefits include saving 333,000 lives and averting considerable morbidity due to ill health, leading to improvements in health-related quality of life and workforce productivity.
‘Health and economic benefits of achieving hepatitis C virus elimination in Pakistan: A modelling study and economic analysis‘ by Aaron G Lim, Nick Scott, Josephine G Walker, Saeed Hamid, Margaret Hellard and Peter Vickerman PLOS Medicine [open access]
Read the full University of Bristol press release
Further information
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The mission of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. We do this by:
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About the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation at University of Bristol
The Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Behavioural Science and Evaluation at University of Bristol is part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and a partnership between University of Bristol and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), in collaboration with the MRC Biostatistics Unit at University of Cambridge and University of the West of England. We are a multidisciplinary team undertaking applied research on the development and evaluation of interventions to protect the public’s health. Our aim is to support UKHSA in delivering its objectives and functions.
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