Author information
1
Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Technology Assessment, Harvard Medical School, 101 Merrimac Street, Floor 10th, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Electronic address: jagchhatwal@mgh.harvard.edu.
2
Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 310 Leonhard Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
3
Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rae Bareli Road, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226014, India.
Abstract
Oral direct-acting antiviral agents have revolutionized treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Nonetheless, barriers exist to elimination of HCV as a public health threat including low uptake of treatment, limited budget allocations for HCV treatment, and low awareness rates of HCV status among infected people. Mathematical modeling provides a systematic framework to analyze and compare potential solutions and elimination strategies by simulating the HCV epidemic under different conditions. Such models evaluate impact of interventions in advance of implementation. This article describes key components of developing an HCV burden model and illustrates its use by simulating the HCV epidemic in the United States.