Modelling the potential clinical and economic impact of universal antenatal hepatitis C (HCV) screening and providing treatment for pregnant women with HCV and their infants in Egypt: a cost-effectiveness study

Backgrounds and aimsPregnant women and children are not included in Egypt’s hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination programmes. This study assesses the cost-effectiveness of several screening and treatment strategies for pregnant women and infants in Egypt.DesignA Markov model was developed to simulate the cascade of care and HCV disease progression among pregnant women and their infants according to different screening and treatment strategies, which included: targeted versus universal antenatal screening; treatment of women in pregnancy or deferred till after breast feeding; treatment of infected children at 3 years vs 12 years. Current practice is targeted antenatal screening with deferred treatment for the mother and child. We also explored prophylactic treatment after birth for children of diagnosed HCV-infected women. Discounted lifetime cost, life expectancy (LE) and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) were calculated separately for women and their infants, and then combined.ResultsCurrent practice led to the highest cost (US$314.0), the lowest LE (46.3348 years) and the highest DALYs (0.0512 years) per mother–child pair. Universal screening and treatment during pregnancy followed by treatment of children at 3 years would be less expensive and more effective (cost saving) compared with current practice (US$219.3, 46.3525 and 0.0359 years). Prophylactic treatment at birth for infants born to HCV RNA-positive mothers would also be similarly cost saving, even with treatment uptake as low as 15% (US$218.6, 46.3525 and 0.0359 years). Findings were robust to reasonable changes in parameters.ConclusionUniversal screening and treatment of HCV in pregnancy, with treatment of infected infants at age 3 years is cost saving compared with current practice in the Egyptian setting.