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All HCV patients undergoing HCV therapy at the Vienna General Hospital from 2019 to 2021 were included. An HCV hotline was established in 2019 and provided services including phone calls, text messages and voicemails. Patients were stratified by date of HCV therapy: 2019 (pre\u2010COVID) vs. 2020\/2021 (during\u2010COVID) and use of the HCV hotline: users vs. non\u2010users. Overall, 220 patients were included (pre\u2010COVID: <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a091 vs. during\u2010COVID: <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a0129). The prevalence of intravenous drug use (60.5%) and alcohol abuse (24.8%) was high during COVID. During COVID, the number of DAA treatment starts declined by 24.2% (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a069) in 2020 and by 34.1% (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a060) in 2021 vs. pre\u2010COVID (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a091, 100%). Significantly more patients used the HCV hotline during\u2010COVID (95.3%) vs. pre\u2010COVID (65.9%; <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u2009.001). Sustained virologic response (SVR) was 84.6% pre\u2010COVID and 86.0% during\u2010COVID. HCV hotline users achieved higher SVR rates during\u2010COVID (88.2% vs. 33.3%, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a0.004), but also pre\u2010COVID (96.7% vs. 61.3%, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u2009.001) compared with non\u2010users. Considering only patients with completed DAA treatments, SVR rates remained similarly high during\u2010COVID (96.9%) versus pre\u2010COVID (98.1%). HCV treatment initiations decreased during\u2010COVID but importantly, nearly all DAA\u2010treated HCV patients used the HCV hotline during the COVID pandemic. Overall, the SVR rate remained at 88.2% during COVID and was particularly high in HCV phone users\u2014most likely due to facilitation of adherence.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1111\/jvh.13746","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,5]],"date-time":"2022-09-05T08:23:48Z","timestamp":1662366228000},"page":"1062-1072","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["<scp>HCV<\/scp> hotline facilitates Hepatitis C elimination during the <scp>COVID<\/scp>\u201019 pandemic"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"29","author":[{"given":"Lukas","family":"Hartl","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine III Medical University of Vienna  Vienna Austria"},{"name":"Vienna HIV &amp; Liver Study Group Medical University of Vienna  Vienna Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mathias","family":"Jachs","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine III Medical University of Vienna  Vienna Austria"},{"name":"Vienna HIV &amp; 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