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Friday, May 18, 2018
News Recap:
Canada:
Promoting Drug Pricing Policy Resources for Patient Groups. Patient groups in Canada shared in a recent survey that they struggle to understand the complexities of drug pricing policy in Canada and that they would like more information. In response, the Drug Pricing Policy Summit Working Groups have put together two web pages that outline various resources and learning opportunities to help patient groups learn more.
Needle exchanges coming to 2 Canadian prisons. Corrections Canada will begin 1st phase of its needle exchange program in June. Harm-reduction advocates say the needle exchange program is long overdue, but prison guards say they are wondering what happened to the correctional service’s zero-tolerance policy on drugs.
Liver disease a growing problem as boomers age Robert Morin remembers the day, 30 years ago, when it hit him: It started with a feeling of pins and needles all over his body and by the end of the day he could barely walk. Now 52, Morin was a college student at the time. He soon learned he was suffering from a serious liver disease.
Quality of Life:
Do fatigue and quality of life improve after hepatitis C is cured? Patient-reported outcomes such as fatigue, vitality and mental health improve substantially in the two years following hepatitis C cure for people with cirrhosis, but people with cirrhosis are less likely than others to experience rapid resolution of severe fatigue after successful hepatitis C treatment. Quality of life can be severely impaired in people with chronic hepatitis C, especially in people with cirrhosis.
Epidemiology:
As HCV Rises Among Pregnant Women, At-Risk Infants Inadequately Screened. Infants exposed to hepatitis C virus (HCV) in utero are not being screened, leaving many pediatric infections undetected, according to a new study from researchers at Magee-Womens Research Institute. (NB: In Canada, screening of pregnant women was recommended by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (CTFPHC) in April 2017).
What it’s like to grow up with a disease that’s kept secret: ‘I felt unclean.’ Every family has secrets. For Lindsay Ventura, her mother, and her sister, the secret was a disease. At first it was something they didn’t even know they had, but when they were eventually diagnosed, they decided to keep it to themselves for years out of fear they would be stigmatized for it. The disease was hepatitis C.