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Friday, December 23, 2016
News Recap
As we go into the holiday season, the staff and volunteers at HepCBC wish all of our readers and clients a time of health and happiness – something which is often scarce in our community. May you be cured! May you have no lasting side effects!
Treatment
Speaking of which a recent study showed that “patients cured of hepatitis C through treatment had a higher mortality rate overall than the general population. The excess was driven by death from drug-related causes and liver cancer.” (Important take away message: Lifestyle modification really helps!) (Hepatitis C Still Increases Mortality Rate After Being Cured). In fact for hepatitis C virus-infected patients, diabetes mellitus is associated with increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma development and all-cause mortality, according to a study published online Dec. 8 in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (Diabetes Ups Risk of HCC, Death in Patients With Hepatitis C). And there was, as well, a very good article on HCV in prisons and the soaring death rates there due to lack of treatment and harm reduction strategies (Prison Deaths and Hepatitis C: A Health Crisis Behind Bars).
For those of you that can afford it, and have always had a deep secret desire to ride a camel, Egypt has announced a Tour n’ Cure initiative, in collaboration with the Egyptian Tourism Authority to provide treatment for Hepatitis C patients from all around the globe (Etisalat Egypt will sponsor Prime Pharma’s Tour n’ Cure initiative). If you want to see the pyramids, ride a camel and get cured…hey… this might be for you. But don’t get kidnapped!
If you are not going to India or Egypt, and can wait, AbbVie’s new treatment, if approved, will provide an eight week once-daily, ribavirin-free treatment option for HCV patients without cirrhosis across all major genotypes (AbbVie Submits New Drug Application to U.S. FDA for its Investigational Regimen of Glecaprevir/Pibrentasvir (G/P) for the Treatment of All Major Genotypes of Chronic Hepatitis C).
Also in treatment news is a study demonstrating that treatment of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that is led by primary care physicians (PCPs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) has equal safety and efficacy as care from experienced specialists, which would really make treatment easier and less expensive (Hepatitis C, HIV-Led Treatments Shift Toward Primary Care Physicians and Nurse Practitioners).
Last, from the feel good department, in Canada a local Syrian refugee sponsor group and family members already here are desperate to get a Syrian family to Kingston sooner rather than later so one of their children can get life-saving medical care in Canada. The boy, who has beaten leukemia, now has hepatitis C and cirrhosis of the liver (Syrian family hopes to get ailing child to Canada).
Christmas Wish:
In the news is an item from the Irish Haemophilia Society about the effective eradication of Hepatitis C among its members. Between 1970 and 1991 a total of 240 patients were infected with hepatitis C through the use of contaminated blood products for state blood transfusions, and now those who have survived have been cured. Yes, Ireland is NOT Canada, and we have many more infected from tainted blood who are dying and yet to see justice, but we also have a much bigger economy that could handle this situation if the will was there! Breaks my heart (Hepatitis C “effectively eradicated” among Irish haemophilia patients).
