Access to direct-acting antivirals for the treatment of hepatitis C in a country with limited resources. / Evaluación del acceso a antivirales para el tratamiento de la hepatitis C en un país con recursos limitados.

AIMS: To estimate the number of patients that have access to treatment of hepatitis C with direct-acting antivirals in Argentina and evaluate the factors associated with the lack of access. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional cohort study was conducted that included all the consecutive prescriptions of direct-acting antivirals issued at health centers that participated in the ECHOTM telemedicine project directed by the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, within the time frame of January 2016 and February 2017. RESULTS: A total of 143 treatment prescriptions were included and overall access was 70% (95% CI 62-77%). The only independent factor associated with a lack of treatment access was coverage by a public healthcare system (OR 4.98 [95% CI 2.05- 12.09]). CONCLUSION: Patients with hepatitis C that were covered by a public healthcare system had a 4 times higher chance of not having access to treatment with direct-acting antivirals than patients covered by other healthcare systems (private insurance or the social welfare system).

Use of liver grafts from anti-hepatitis B core-positive donors: a multicenter study in Argentina.

Liver transplantation success is limited by the availability of donors. To overcome this limitation, anti-core-positive donors are increasingly being accepted, but underutilization of this resource still occurs. We performed the current study to determine the prevalence of anti-core-positive donors in our region and to describe the management of these donors and their recipients. Between January 2005 and July 2011, the national transplant database included 2,262 registered liver donors among whom 106 (4.7%) were anti-core-positive including 59 (56%) discarded and 47 (44%) implanted organs. A median of 14.5 offers (range 4-60) were rejected before harvesting and implanting the accepted grafts. The only difference between the implanted and the discarded grafts was found for the alanine aminotransferase level, which was higher among the discarded ones (50 ± 59 UI/L vs 25 ± 16, P < .05). Among 40 recipients included in the study, 5 (12.5%) did not receive any prophylaxis; 18 (45%) a nucleos(t)ide analog 11 (25.5%), heptitis B immunoglobulin and nucleos(t)ide analogs and 6 (15%) pretransplant hepatitis B vaccination. Over a mean follow-up of 871 ± 585 days, 4 de novo hepatitis B cases were identified at 545, 720, 748, and 1,080 days posttransplantation. None of these patients had received any prophylaxis. In all cases entecavir successfully controlled viral replication. We believe that better utilization of these donors and careful management of their recipients represent safe strategies to expand the liver donor pool in Argentina.