Hepatitis C Virus: Tackling this infection with Direct Acting Antivirals

Developed by ISAC's Viral Infections Working Group

This course has been developed as part of a series of short courses for the ISAC Academy looking at various infection issues.
It is designed to help you build your understanding of how to manage patients infected with HCV.

Course Aims

The course is aimed at early career healthcare professionals interested in learning more about HCV, including hepatologists and other prescribing clinicians, medical microbiologists, virologists, nurses and lab technicians.

You will start by learning about HCV including the structure of the virus, the epidemiology and clinical presentation. You will then explore HCV coinfection before moving on to learn about treatment methods and reasons why treatment may fail, such as antimicrobial resistance. Lastly, you will learn about occult HCV and the risks this type of infection poses to patients. You will also have the opportunity to follow and discuss two case studies as the course progresses.

By the end of this course you will be able to...

• Identify Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) structure
• Explain HCV coinfection
• Classify Direct Acting Antivirals (DAAs) for HCV
• Explain causes of HCV treatment failure
• Discuss mechanisms of HCV resistance to DAAs
• Define occult HCV
• Discuss pathophysiology of occult HCV
• Explain diagnosis and importance of occult HCV

Meet the Educators

	Professor Fatma Amer (MBBCh, MSc, PhD) is an Emeritus Professor at Zagazig University, Egypt and the past head of the Medical Microbiology and Immunology department at the Zagazig Faculty of Medicine. Professor Amer is an active member of the ISAC Executive Committee, and the Chair of the ISAC Viral Infection Working Group. She is also a member of the Publication Committee of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, World Alliance Against Antibiotic Resistance (WAAAR), and is a consultant of the WHO Advisory Group for Critically Important Antimicrobials (AG CIA). In 2003, she formulated the Arab Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antimicrobials (ArAPUA) as annon-governmental organisation (NGO) in Cairo, Egypt and has chaired the organization for 10 years.
	Professor Monkez M Yousif (MD, AGAF) is an Emeritus Professor of Internal Medicine and former Director of the Zagazig Medical Research Council and Vice Dean for Postgraduate Studies and Research at Zagazig University, Egypt. He completed his medical training at Zagazig University before becoming a lecturer and subsequently a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine. He holds authorship of many publications including several relating to the treatment of HCV. Professor Yousif is a member of the Viral Infections ISAC Working Group. He has an interest in clinical practice, teaching and research in hepatology and gastroenterology
	Professor Jürgen Rockstroh (MD) is Professor of Medicine and Head of the HIV Outpatient Clinic at the University of Bonn in Germany. His department is home to a treatment centre for the world’s largest cohort of HIV-infected haemophiliacs. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr Rockstroh is involved in HIV research on: antiretroviral therapy including new drug classes; the course of HIV disease in haemophiliacs; and HIV and hepatitis co-infection. More recently, he has worked on the impact of COVID-19 on HIV-coinfection. He is a principal investigator in multiple clinical trials of antiretroviral agents and treatments for HIV, hepatitis co-infection and COVID-19.