Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are seeing concerningly high levels of hepatitis C in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. We are significantly expanding out treatment programs in response and aim to treat 30,000 people with hepatitis C by the end of 2026.
The initiative will improve access to care for Rohingya, a stateless people who are particularly exposed to this curable, but potentially fatal, disease. MSF is now establishing three specialized treatment centres within existing health facilities as part of a “test and treat” campaign, which seeks to reach around one third of all people living with hepatitis C in the camps. This “test and treat” strategy will ensure that people who test positive for the virus are put on treatment quickly, improving their health and curbing further spread of the virus in the camps.
Between October 2020 and December 2024, MSF treated over 10,000 people for hepatitis C at our clinics in Jamtoli camp and at the “hospital on the hill.” However, a 2023 MSF study published last month in The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology found that nearly one in five adults – an estimated 86,000 people – are living with chronic active infection, highlighting the critical need for a more robust response.
“Access to hepatitis C care in camps, where more than a million refugees have been living for the past eight years, has been extremely limited,” says . Wasim Firuz, doctor and MSF deputy medical coordinator. “Treating hepatitis C is not part of the package of healthcare provided by overstretched healthcare facilities. People are also not allowed to freely leave the camps to access healthcare and even if they could, it’s unlikely they would be able to afford the cost of treatment.”
