Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is once again the focus of an expensive project aimed at reducing human suffering and health care costs caused by injection drug use.
Health Minister Terry Lake on Thursday announced a $5-million study that will look at how to reduce the spread of hepatitis C among intravenous drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men.
It will concentrate on people who have already taken medication that clears them of the hepatitis C virus, but who could be reinfected if they have blood-to-blood contact with another person. They will be encouraged to prevent that by using condoms, not sharing needles and taking part in support programs through Vancouver Coastal Health, one of the five organizations involved in the program.
“The investments we’ve made on the Downtown Eastside have saved taxpayers money,” Lake said following the announcement. “We know that we’ve saved lives, saved hospitalizations. Study after study after study have demonstrated that the investment we make in a vulnerable population has a net benefit to all of us as British Columbians.”
Governments throughout North America are now dealing with the potential to effectively treat hepatitis C – a contagious disease that can lead to liver failure and death – with a new generation of anti-viral medications. Pharmaceutical companies have launched aggressive marketing campaigns for their pills that can render the virus undetectable in months, a vast improvement over past options.
The cost of the medications, depending on the length of treatment, is between $50,000 and $100,000 for each patient.