To develop, pilot and evaluate integrated hepatitis C care-package at 51 rural health centers in six selected districts; then inform its evidence-based scaling in the remaining 30 districts of Punjab.

Location: 55 Rural Health Centers in six selected districts of Punjab

Duration:  September 2020 – February 2022

Funded by: The Hepatitis Fund

Outputs:

• Care-package is adapted for managing integrated Hepatitis-C care at RHCs. This may cover both the care delivery (e.g. screening, diagnosing, prescribing, educating etc.) and the management support functions (e.g. staff training, uninterrupted supplies, performance monitoring etc.) for integrated Hepatitis-C care at RHCs.
• All 55 RHCs in the six selected districts are enabled for delivering integrated hepatitis-C care to the more 9.5 million rural population. The RHC enabling includes: i) at least two doctors and two allied staff trained on the Program-endorsed care package; ii) hepatitis care supplies (e.g. rapid testing kits, drugs, print materials etc.) made available; iii) recording, reporting and monitoring is in-place; iv) functioning RHC links with registered patients, public hospitals, district health office, and Hepatitis Program.
• At 55 RHCs in six districts: i) at least 40,000 individuals are screened with a rapid test; ii) 10,000 of those reactive on rapid testing have diagnostic testing at a designated PCR laboratory; iii) 4,000 confirmed cases are registered and treated for Hepatitis-C; and iv) treated cases are re-tested after 12 weeks of completed treatment and 85% or more are found with sustained virologic response (SVR).

Outcomes:

• At least two publications in peer-reviewed journals on process evaluation and costing studies.
• Evidence of effectiveness and feasibility of the integrated care-package generated to inform program decisions/ plans for scaling the decentralized integrated care delivery package.

Results and the products are shared with potential stakeholders within and outside Pakistan for possible relevance to their planned activities.