Ontario is charting the path to eliminate hepatitis C by 2030

Hepatitis C elimination is within reach and would be an historic public health achievement.

The Ontario Hepatitis C Elimination Roadmap is a guiding policy and practice document. It outlines how Ontario can take action to:

  • Advance prevention strategies, including among those at highest risk
  • Increase the number of people tested for and diagnosed with hepatitis C 
  • Expand treatment options for easier access
Read the report

Hepatitis C is among the most burdensome infectious diseases in Ontario. However, highly effective curative treatment, widespread testing and proven prevention strategies put elimination within reach.

An estimated 110,000 people are living with hepatitis C in Ontario

44% of people living with hepatitis C are unaware that they have the disease

A highly effective cure is publicly covered for almost all Ontarians

We’re delivering Ontario’s Roadmap with your help

More than 110,00 Ontarians are living with hepatitis C, which is one of the leading causes of death and illness from an infectious disease in Canada. We are working closely with people with lived experience, priority populations, researchers, healthcare workers, policy-makers, and community workers, connecting front-line and system-level expertise in hepatitis C. 

By 2030, Ontario aims to:

Reduce new infections by 80%

Diagnose 90% of people living with hepatitis C

Begin treatment for 80% of people living with hepatitis C

From a national blueprint to an Ontario Roadmap

Canada has committed to achieving World Health Organization targets for eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. In 2019, the Canadian Network on Hepatitis C took the first step by creating a national Blueprint to Inform Hepatitis C Elimination Efforts in Canada, setting out bold targets to eliminate hepatitis C and paved the way for Ontario’s Roadmap.

To meet these targets, the Ontario’s hepatitis C elimination effort is driving a collaborative, multi-sector initiative to:

  • Enable policy and health system change
  • Advance high-impact strategies to put Ontario on the road to elimination
  • Apply a health equity and population health approach to meet the needs of priority populations experiencing the greatest burden of hepatitis C

Hepatitis C elimination can only be realized through a population health and health equity approach

Ontario’s plan to eliminate hepatitis C priority population lens, focusing on those most at risk for hepatitis C:

Our team

Providing leadership to this collaborative, multi-sector initiative are Bernadette Lettner, RN, Lead, Clinical Training, Guidance and Monitoring, and Kate Palbom, Lead, Engagement and Secretariat. These two positions are funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health. Their work is supported and guided by a Core Implementation Team: 

Dr. Mia Biondi, PhD, NP-PHC, Director of Implementation, Viral Hepatitis Care Network

Melisa Dickie, Director, Hepatitis C and Harm Reduction Knowledge Mobilization, CATIE

Dr. Jordan Feld, Director, Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, University Health Network, Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto

Heidi Hay, Advisor, Wellesley Group 

Christopher Hoy, Associate Director, Ontario Hepatitis C and Harm Reduction Programming, CATIE

Roadmap Development Advisory Committee

A multi-stakeholder advisory committee contributed to the development of the Ontario Hepatitis C Elimination Roadmap. They reflect a diverse range of community, clinical and research organizations and networks, and ex-officio members of Ontario. The document Roadmap document launched in 2023. Represented organizations include: