B.C. set to take on new infectious disease while marking progress made on HIV/AIDS
AIDS expert Dr. Julio Montaner and B.C.’s Ministry of Health are planning to take on another infectious disease with potentially deadly consequences: hepatitis C.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside – where an estimated 80 per cent of area drug users have hep C – Health Minister Terry Lake said publicly funded treatment is now restricted to people who already have considerable liver damage, but that could change.
“What Dr. Montaner is looking at is a targeted hep C program for core transmitters: people who are living a lifestyle that puts them at risk for re-transmitting,” said Lake. “That work will require help from the provincial government and we’re having discussions about that at the moment.”
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infection and almost all new cases among B.C.’s estimated 80,000 carriers are among drug users who spread it by sharing needles or pipes. But a large untreated pool of hep C is found among baby boomers who contracted it decades ago, often through unhygienic medical and dental practises. Many are undiagnosed.
“As we expand treatment and as the cost of those drugs come down, we will reach further upstream and treat more people, and treat them earlier,” Lake explained.
“We’re looking forward to getting rid of hepatitis C as we’re doing for HIV,” Montaner said.
David Ramsay, a counsellor with the Vancouver Native Health Society, says many clients have been cured of hepatitis C in the past year through the latest medications. People who regularly drink alcohol aren’t candidates for treatment, however, because of the strain it adds to their already damaged livers.