The UAE is on course to eliminate hepatitis C within a decade with the help of a new strategy to wipe out the virus in “baby steps”.

The process of ‘micro-elimination’, which targets specific communities or at-risk groups one by one for screening and treatment, would help detect cases and treat patients who might not even know they had the condition, experts said.

The approach was trialled in Ras Al Khaimah and is set to be adopted by the Ministry of Health, Samir Alawadi, a consultant gastroenterologist and President of Emirates Gastroenterology and Hepatology Society, said.

The tactic means specific groups in a community will be identified and targeted by health workers, rather than the population as a whole.

Read the entire story at The National. Stefan Wiktor, Acting Professor of Global Health, is quoted.