Letter to editor:
Zeremski et al., (2016) highlight how improving patients’ knowledge about hepatitis C virus (HCV) care can enhance adherence to treatment plans and improved treatment outcomes. In this regard we believe that patients’ knowledge of HCV care can best be optimized through community-based approaches to HCV treatment as supported by recent findings from (Wade et al., 2015; Grebely et al., 2016).

The advent of such models of care provide an opportunity to embed HCV treatment within a holistic approach that also addresses related issues, especially alcohol use disorders. This is especially the case in Ireland, where alcohol use disorders are common among people who inject drugs (Ryder et al., 2009). This increases the risk of complications related to chronic HCV infection as alcohol can exacerbate HCV infection and the associated liver damage by causing oxidative stress and promoting fibrosis, thereby accelerating disease progression to cirrhosis (Batchelder et al., 2015).......