Ricardo Baptista-Leite

Aim Despite advancements in hepatitis C care, significant gaps remain, particularly in retaining people who inject drugs (PWID) in treatment, which hinders progress toward achieving the World Health Organization’s (WHO) hepatitis C elimination goals. The ADHERE (Attract pwiD Hepatitis hEalthcaRE) toolkit was developed to address these challenges by...

Aim This paper presents the development of the METRIC toolkit, aimed at enhancing primary healthcare interventions in the context of hepatitis C control, thus contributing to the World Health Organization’s global strategy to achieve the elimination of the disease by 2030. Background At the global level, most people living with hepatitis C are una...

Background: Influenza represents a critical public health challenge, disproportionately affecting at-risk populations, including older adults and those with chronic conditions, often compounded by socioeconomic factors. Innovative strategies, such as gamification, are essential for augmenting risk communication and community engagement efforts to a...

Aim The “APPEAL” toolkit was developed to address the challenges in diagnosing people who inject drugs (PWID) with hepatitis C (HCV) and engaging them with healthcare systems. It introduces an ecosystemic approach based on health and well-being literacy across awareness, prevention and diagnosis dimensions of the hepatitis C’s care cascade (CC) for...

BACKGROUND Influenza is a seasonal threat with pandemic potential. Influenza infection is particularly dangerous for vulnerable individuals, such as children, older individuals, and those with multiple illnesses, especially those with lower socio-economic status. Hence, it is necessary to have appropriate tools to mitigate these risks. Gamification...

Background Influenza represents a critical public health challenge, disproportionately affecting at-risk populations, including older adults and those with chronic conditions, often compounded by socioeconomic factors. Innovative strategies, such as gamification, are essential for augmenting risk communication and community engagement efforts to ad...

Background Hepatitis C is a disease with a strong social component, as its main transmission route is via blood, making it associated with lifestyle. Therefore, it is suitable to be worked on from the perspective of public health policy, which still has a lot of room to explore and improve, contrary to diagnoses and treatments, which are already ve...

Background: The increased focus on quality indicators (QIs) and the use of clinical registries in real-world cancer studies have increased compliance with therapeutic standards and patient survival. The European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (EUSOMA) established QIs to assess compliance with current standards in breast cancer care. Methods...

Background: This study is part of the H360 Health Analysis (H360) and aimed to investigate the Quality of Life (QoL) of Breast Cancer (BC) patients in the real world. Methods: Two questionnaires (EORTC QLQ‑C30 version 3.0 and its breast-specific module QLQ‑BR23) validated for the Portuguese population were applied to assess BC patients’ QoL in sev...

Despite notable scientific and medical advances, broader political, socioeconomic and behavioural factors continue to undercut the response to the COVID-19 pandemic1,2. Here we convened, as part of this Delphi study, a diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 academic, health, non-governmental organization, government and other experts in COVID-19 r...

Despite notable scientific and medical advances, broader political, socioeconomic and behavioural factors continue to undercut the response to the COVID-19 pandemic1,2. Here we convened, as part of this Delphi study, a diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 academic, health, non-governmental organization, government and other experts in COVID-19 r...

Despite notable scientific and medical advances, broader political, socioeconomic and behavioural factors continue to undercut the response to the COVID-19 pandemic 1,2 . Here we convened, as part of this Delphi study, a diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 academic, health, non-governmental organization, government and other experts in COVID-19...

Despite notable scientific and medical advances, broader political, socioeconomic and behavioural factors continue to undercut the response to the COVID-19 pandemic1,2. Here we convened, as part of this Delphi study, a diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 academic, health, non-governmental organization, government and other experts in COVID-19 r...

Despite notable scientific and medical advances, broader political, socioeconomic and behavioural factors continue to undercut the response to the COVID-19 pandemic 1,2 . Here we convened, as part of this Delphi study, a diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 academic, health, non-governmental organization, government and other experts in COVID-19...

Background The increased focus on quality indicators (QIs) and the use of clinical registries in real-world cancer studies have led to higher compliance with therapeutic standards and increased patient survival. The European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (EUSOMA) defined QIs to assess compliance with current standards in breast cancer care....

In 2016, the Hepatitis B and C Public Policy Association (HepBCPPA), gathered all the main stakeholders in the field of hepatitis C virus (HCV) to launch the now landmark HCV Elimination Manifesto, calling for the elimination of HCV in the EU by 2030. Since then, many European countries have made progress towards HCV elimination. Multiple programs...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C is a disease with a strong social component, as its main transmission route is via blood, making it associated with lifestyle. Therefore, it is suitable to be worked on from the perspective of public health policy, which still has a lot of room to explore and improve, contrary to diagnoses and treatments, which are already ve...

Background: The WHO has defined international targets toward the elimination of hepatitis C by 2030. Most countries cannot be on track to achieve this goal unless many challenges are surpassed. The Let's End HepC (LEHC) tool aims to contribute to the control of hepatitis C. The innovation of this tool combines the modelling of public health policie...

Health systems have improved their abilities to identify, diagnose, treat and, increasingly, achieve viral suppression among people living with HIV (PLHIV). Despite these advances, a higher burden of multimorbidity and poorer health-related quality of life are reported by many PLHIV in comparison to people without HIV. Stigma and discrimination fur...

Health systems have improved their abilities to identify, diagnose, treat and, increasingly, achieve viral suppression among people living with HIV (PLHIV). Despite these advances, a higher burden of multimorbidity and poorer health-related quality of life are reported by many PLHIV in comparison to people without HIV. Stigma and discrimination fur...

Background: Eliminating hepatitis C requires addressing issues other than medicines or therapies. Public health policies focused on the hepatitis C virus (HCV) must be emphasized and worked to know the impacts on its epidemiologic dynamics. This research aims to provide a tool to evaluate and simulate alternatives by redefining policies meeting spe...

Background and aims: More than 292 million people are living with hepatitis B worldwide and are at risk of death from liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set global targets for the elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. However, current levels of global investment in viral hepatitis...

Background & Aims: To combat hepatitis C virus (HCV) and achieve its elimination by 2030, the emphasis should be on public health policies. In this study, we investigated the dynamics of epidemiology of HCV in Romanian risk groups that are characterized by higher occurrence densities with the aid of !e Let’s End HepC (LEHC) project. Methods: !e L...

WHO has set global targets for the elimination of hepatitis B and hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030. However, investment in elimination programmes remains low. To help drive political commitment and catalyse domestic and international financing, we have developed a global investment framework for the elimination of hepatitis B and hepat...

In the wake of the current public health emergency caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is creating a situation of huge complexity and even of disruption in the Hospitals and the National Health Systems battlefronts on the most affected countries. The situation is particularly da...

H360 aims to provide a comprehensive picture of breast cancer management in Portugal by retrieving real-world data from 10 Portuguese hospitals and deriving a snapshot from the medical interpretation of evidence-based data to patient perspective on the quality and effectiveness of medical care provided. This article reviews evidence on breast cance...

Treating Hepatitis C is no longer an issue restricted to the realm of treatments with medicines. It is of the utmost importance to understand and integrate the dynamics of this disease in the form of effective public health policies. Eliminating HCV by 2030 requires policies to address issues such as identifying segments and microsegments of risk g...

The medicines paradigm to treat Hepatitis C is now surpassed. The time has come for the public health policies focused on this disease to be worked on and to know the detail of its epidemiologic dynamics. To be able to solve the major problems to combat Hepatitis C and achieving the elimination of this disease by 2030, it is of the utmost importanc...

The medicines paradigm to treat Hepatitis C (HCV) is now surpassed. The time has come for the public health policies focused on this disease to be worked on and to know the detail of its epidemiologic dynamics. Solving the major problems to combat HCV and to achieve its elimination by 2030 requires the targeting of issues such as the segmentation a...

It is now time for Hepatitis C treatments to address issues other than medicines or therapies. The time has come for the public health policies focused on this disease to be worked on and to know the detail of its epidemiologic dynamics. In order to achieve the elimination of HCV by 2030 one should target the following issues: diagnosing HCV infect...

A National Charter for Multiple Sclerosis was developed, which comprises Portugal's hospital production for this pathology. Participation was voluntary, with 16 hospitals and 2 ULS having participated in the study, from a total of 46 entities with MS consultation in Portugal. Considering that the sample comprises almost all major hospital centers,...

The majority of people infected with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the European Union (EU) remain undiagnosed and untreated. During recent years, immigration to EU has further increased HCV prevalence. It has been estimated that, out of the 4.2 million adults affected by HCV infection in the 31 EU/ European Economic Area (EEA) countries, as ma...

A Hepatitis C epidemiological model was developed using Markov chains as is commonly used. However, this research went beyond generic modelling and worked with five risk groups (Blood Products, Prisoners, PWID, Vertical Transmission and Remnant Population), developing specific epidemiological dynamics for each population and for the population as a...

People who inject drugs (PWID) are vulnerable to a wide range of viral and bacterial infections among those populations that present the highest epidemiological expression of Hepatitis C, requiring special attention by health care authorities. In addition to this, the lifestyle of PWID present specificities that raise conceptual challenges that dif...

Seen as a public health issue, Hepatitis C guidelines have been implemented in order to reduce dissemination and prevalence of the disease, targeting groups at high-risk such as prisoners. The presence of populations that share this risk level when associated with specific prison conditions leads to higher incidence and prevalence rates among priso...

Viral hepatitis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, but has long been neglected by national and international policymakers. Recent modelling studies suggest that investing in the global elimination of viral hepatitis is feasible and cost-effective. In 2016, all 194 member states of the World Health Organization endorsed the goa...

Primary health care (PHC) is the best way to reach the general population and particularly specific communities in diagnosing and treating Hepatitis C, as most HCV patients are unaware that they are infected. Contact with citizens with different health conditions makes it easier to find potential patients who are unfamiliar with Hepatitis C, and co...

Abstract Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) have dramatically changed the landscape of hepatitis C treatment and prevention. The World Health Organization has called for the elimination of hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030. However, the discrepancy in DAA prices across low-, middle- and high-income countries is considerable, ranging from l...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health problem in the European Union (EU). An estimated 5.6 million Europeans are chronically infected with a wide range of variation in prevalence across European Union countries. Although HCV continues to spread as a largely “silent pandemic,” its elimination is made possible through the availab...

Introduction: Recently, the world has seen examples of the legalization of cannabis for recreational purposes. Due to the diversity of experiences in progress, it is urgent to analyze the impacts of this legalization, from a public health perspective. Therefore, this article aims to review the accumulated knowledge in the states and countries wher...

Introduction: The overlap between asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (ACO) has been discussed for many years but clinical recommendations for this entity have been diverse. This study is intended to reach a consensus on diagnosis, treatment and patient orientation for ACO, within the Portuguese medical community. Methods: Th...

Life quality, life expectancy and morbidity patterns of a population are dependent on its ability to prevent pathological conditions through lifestyles, knowledge, and the application of knowledge about health. One's individual and collective health status is, to a large extent, the expression of a given level of knowledge. Lifelong Learning is the...

There is broad recognition in the international and national community that the commitments made by the Presidents of the City Councils of many cities around the world under the Paris Declaration of 2014 represent a decisive contribution to achieving the objectives of the “Fast Track Cities to end the HIV epidemic”. The Fast Track Cities initiative...

Introduction: Medicinal products of a biological origin are approved by the EMA at a centralized level. However, there is no harmonization about their use in Europe. The current regulation referring to the safety of biological medicinal products and biosimilars in Europe has been identified. The safety associated with medicinal products of a biolog...

Introduction: Biological and biosimilar medicinal products have specific characteristics that call for a closer monitoring of their safety profile. Since the current legal framework stems from both European and national regulations, some gaps in the operational field may be expected. The goal of this paper is to identify these gaps and propose chan...

Introduction: Phenotypic overlap between the two main chronic airway pulmonary diseases, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), has been the subject of debate for decades, and recently the nomenclature of asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) was adopted for this condition. The definition of this entity in the literature is, howeve...

Background In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a new Global Health Sector Strategy on HIV for 2016–2021. It establishes 15 ambitious targets, including the ‘90-90-90’ target calling on health systems to reduce under-diagnosis of HIV, treat a greater number of those diagnosed, and ensure that those being treated achieve viral suppre...

Os medicamentos oncológicos para administração por via oral têm vindo a ter uma procura crescente, decorrente de uma maior facilidade de administração, de maior conforto, e da menor mobilização de recursos que exigem relativamente à via parentérica. Encontram-se distribuídos por nove grupos farmacoterapêuticos, de acordo com o respetivo mecanismo d...

It was produced a National Consensus of Public Policies for Hepatitis C in Portugal

Background: People who inject drugs (PWID) are at increased risk of tuberculosis (TB) and reduced retention in treatment. There is a need to document strategies for integrated delivery of HIV, TB and drug dependency care. Methods: This article reviews the literature on rates of TB mono- and co-infection, and published and grey literature descrip...