Everyone in: hepatitis C screening for rough sleepers accommodated during the COVID-19 pandemic in Somerset, England

WHO is aiming for the eradication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a global health threat by 2030. However, concerns have been raised about how the COVID-19 pandemic may affect eradication efforts.1 One long-standing barrier to achieving the WHO goals is the high prevalence of HCV in marginalised populations.2 Homelessness is a significant risk factor for HCV infection in the UK, with chronic prevalence in this group estimated at 29%.3 Homeless people diagnosed with HCV infection are also less likely to complete treatment. The reasons for this are complex, but involve mistrust of medical services, inflexibility of secondary care pathways and geographic mobility.4 During the COVID-19 pandemic, homeless people across Somerset were housed in temporary accommodation through the national ‘Everyone in’ initiative. This provided a unique opportunity for eradication efforts by reducing the geographic mobility of this population, and provided a setting in which HCV patients could be managed. In this letter, we describe a targeted multidisciplinary programme to identify and …