OBJECTIVES:

The direct action antiviral drugs (DAAD) represented a great advance in the management of infection by Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), representing a worldwide challenge in financing due to its cost. The present work estimates the effectiveness of the treatment of HCV patients, with DAAD, in the context of social security in Argentina.

METHODS:

The trade union-run medical insurance that made treatment with (DAAD) since 2016 can request economic reimbursement through a special fund for high-cost technologies, for which they must present data on specific characteristics of the virus, time of infection, comorbidities, history, treatment schemes used, time of treatment and viral response (VR) reached, which are processed by the PSEST. The study analyzes trade union-run medical insurance data on recoveries until December 2018, with a temporality of 2 years.

RESULTS:

The study collects evidence on 179 patients, of which 173 (97%) obtained negative viral load results and are free of disease and 6 (3%) continue with positive viral load. 80% performed 12 weeks of treatment and 16% during 24 weeks. 30% had previous treatment, detecting 46% of cases of HCV in the last 5 years. The most commonly used treatment regimens were sofosbuvir + daclatasvir (66%), ombitasvir + paritaprevir + ritonavir (13%) and sofosbuvir + ledipasvir (11%). 69% belong to genotype 1, 14% to genotype 3, 13% to genotype 2, and 3% to genotype 4. 42% corresponds to stage 4, 26% to 3, 16% to 0-1 and 15% to 2. 17% had HIV coinfection, with a higher prevalence in men.

CONCLUSIONS:

The real world effectiveness data of patients treated for HCV infection are consistent with those observed in published studies. It should be noted that the number of patients treated does not allow estimating differences in effectiveness between schemes.