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Canada’s top liver physicians released new figures showing dramatically increased costs due to untreated hepatitis C which would place a great burden on our medical system over the next 20 years. Liver-related deaths due to liver cancer, liver failure and other causes due to untreated hepatitis C are projected to increase 160% over the next 20 years, significantly more than projected currently by the Public Health Agency of Canada. Treatments are available which can cure 90 – 100% of patients with hepatitis C (some of these are still moving through the regulatory process). While the cost of these drugs is, arguably, very high, these figures show the tremendous cost, in both human and financial terms, of withholding treatment. To read more, see…
News Release from Canadian Liver Foundation (May 27, 2014)
Source article:Burden of Disease and Cost of Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Canada, published in the Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (May 2014).
Shorter abstract available HERE.
Authors: Robert P Myers MD MSc, Mel Krajden MD, Marc Bilodeau MD, Kelly Kaita MD, Paul Marotta MD, Kevork Peltekian MD, Alnoor Ramji MD, Chris Estes MPH8, Homie Razavi PhD, Morris Sherman MD