Descriptive analysis identifies gender disparities and treatment gaps in hepatitis C care in Canada, highlighting implications for public health strategies.
Understanding the impact of gender has been identified a priority focus in regional and global efforts to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a public health threat. Gender affects health and wellness across the lifespan, and women and gender-diverse peoples face increasing structural barriers leading to a higher risk of HCV acquisition and decreasing the ability to seek care and treatment. The objective of this study was to describe a Canadian cohort of individuals engaged in HCV care self-identified as cis or trans women or trans men. In this cohort of cis women and trans persons, fibrosis scores were low, but specific groups were more likely to have compensated/decompensated cirrhosis, highlighting the need for earlier case-finding and treatment. In addition, opioid agonist therapy (OAT) uptake was poor, an observation which may support co-localizing HCV treatment with OAT initiation to prevent drug use relapse and reinfection.
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Biondi et al. (2026) studied this question.
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