$5-million study targets Hep C
Province puts up $5 million into Downtown Eastside effort
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.”
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 antiviral 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.
Treating every one of the estimated 60,000 people with hepatitis C in B.C. would cost $3 billion, said Lake. And B.C. has already spent $100 million more than expected on the three medications it covers under Pharmacare. More than 2,000 prescriptions were issued in 2015, the first year they became available.
While the new research will focus on core transmitters responsible for about 2,500 new cases in B.C. each year, Lake said more baby boomers with hep C — mostly infected by unsafe medical and dental practices decades ago — will be treated if prices come down as expected.
“As we fight to get those drug costs down, we can go further upstream with our treatment.”
Daryl Luster, president of the Pacific Hepatitis C Network, says everyone with the illness deserves adequate treatment.
“I don’t know that we need a lot more study to act on this,” said Lus-
As we fight to get those drug costs down, we can go further upstream with our treatment.
ter in a telephone interview from Ottawa, where he is meeting with federal health officials. “Although I’ve spoken out about the largest community living with hepatitis C — which is baby boomers — I’m inclusive of all people. It’s unfortunate if, in fact, we’re only going to put our resources and attention to one community — particularly one geographic community.”
Publicly funded medications are now limited to people who already have liver damage, angering some people who test positive but don’t qualify for coverage, said Luster. Most never complain because of the stigma associated with the disease.
“I’ve been assured that this isn’t the only way that the ministry is going to deal with hep C. If this is it, I’m going to be screaming,” he said.
Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, will lead the research. He championed the “treatment as prevention” approach to HIV/ AIDS in which everyone diagnosed receives anti-viral medication, thereby reducing the chances they will infect another person. It’s credited with an 88 per cent drop in new AIDS cases in B.C. since 1994.
“The World Health Organization has already been in contact with us to discuss the expansion of the treatment as prevention strategy to viral hepatitis based on what we’re discussing here today,” he said after the news conference.
“This is not a make-work project, but an opportunity for us to break a new boundary domestically and internationally.”