Pubdate: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2014 Postmedia Network Inc. Contact: http://www.montrealgazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Marie-Eve Morin Note: Marie-Eve Morin is a doctor at Clinique Opus in Montreal. she specializes in drug addiction and mental health. Page: A18 WE NEED MORE ROUTINE TESTING FOR HEPATITIS C On this 28th day of July, marking 25 years since the discovery of the hepatitis C virus, we are calling attention to World Hepatitis Day. Why? To begin with, because more than 50,000 Quebecers have the disease. In Canada, the figure is 300,000 to 350,000 people, more than a quarter of whom do not know they have it. Next, because there are new, highly effective treatments for treating and eradicating hepatitis C, with cure rates exceeding 90 per cent. However, in Canada, fewer than 5 per cent of people with hepatitis C have, to date, obtained treatment for it. Hepatitis C is transmitted through the blood. In other words, any act that can cause the blood of two individuals to come into contact can constitute a risk of transmission: parlour-based tattooing and piercing; sharing drug-use equipment and personal-hygiene items; transfusion prior to 1992; and sometimes even certain risky sexual practices. In fact, 60 per cent of affected individuals are current or former intravenous drug users. Today, they are lawyers, teachers and parents who hope to rid themselves of the virus. There are those who use drugs because of a dependency and for whom treatment is often an incentive for stopping using drugs. So, why is access to treatment limited to fewer than 5 per cent of affected individuals? In 2012, Ipsos surveyed close to 1,000 Canadians and 300 family doctors for the Canadian Liver Foundation: 57 per cent of the doctors said they did not know that hepatitis C can be cured. More Canadians have been screened for HIV (32 per cent) than for hepatitis C (23 per cent). However, in Canada, there are approximately five or six 6 cases of hepatitis C for every case of HIV. We have to talk, then, about hepatitis C, to encourage Canadians to get tested. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has proposed that all baby boomers (born-between 1946 and 1966) be tested at least once in their lifetime. In Canada, the recommendation is slow in coming, even if this disease results in the loss of a higher number of years of life and in greater morbidity than any other infectious disease. It is also to be hoped that with the advent of multiple new combinations of completely oral treatments in the next two years, screening, management and access to treatment will improve. For this to happen, we will have to invest in healthcare infrastructure, such as by increasing the number of health professionals adequately trained to treat hepatitis C. As a physician, I can say that telling a patient that he or she has been cured of hepatitis C brings immense satisfaction. However, the joy of being cured must bring an enormous amount of pride. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom