‘Those at risk of Hepatitis C should be screened’
PETALING JAYA: Those at high risk of being exposed to Hepatitis C should start getting themselves screened despite limited treatment currently available, said a consultant hepatologist.
Prof Dr Rosmawati Mohamed said early screening for the virus is encouraged and should not be delayed until those at risk of it develop complications.
“If they wait and suffer from cirrhosis, the treatment may be prolonged or the complications may be more difficult to cure,” she said yesterday after the “How’s Your Blood?” campaign launch in conjunction with World Hepatitis Day, which will be observed on July 28.
In the past, only limited screening was conducted because access to treatment was not widely available due to its exorbitant cost.
A limited 2,000 patients have been targeted to receive Hepatitis C treatment in government hospitals this year after the Malaysian Government became the first in the world to invoke the governmentuse compulsory licence (CL) to gain access to the generic versions of Sofosbuvir last August.
The highrisk group for Hepatitis C, which is transmitted mainly through blood, includes intravenous drug users who share needles (60% of cases), those who have blood transfusions or organ transplants before 1994 (30% of cases) and possibly those with tattooing, body piercing, sharing of personal items such as razors, accidental injury when handling contaminated needles and dialysis.
With the CL initiative, the treatment costs just over RM1,000 and will be free for patients at government hospitals. There are about 23,000 Hepatitis C patients registered with the Health Ministry.
Dr Rosmawati said that following the CL move, which brought down the price of Hepatitis C treatment, more alternative drug combinations are expected to come into the market and further drive down the prices of drugs and make treatment even more accessible to ordinary Malaysians.
Hepatitis C is a type of liver inflammation that is caused by the Hepatitis C virus and can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer.
In Malaysia, there are an estimated 380,000 people living with the virus and the vast majority are unaware that they are infected because of the lack of symptoms until complications set in, said Dr Rosmawati.
Globally, there are 70 million people who have chronic Hepatitis C and over 80% of liver deaths were caused by Hepatitis B and C.
According to the Global Burden of Disease Study published last year, the number of new cases of liver cancer had increased by 75% between 1990 and 2015 and it is now the second leading cause of cancerrelated deaths worldwide.
The “How’s Your Blood?” campaign is launched by Free Hepatitis Malaysia, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to raising awareness of Hepatitis B and C, and the importance of getting a blood test for early detection and timely treatment.
Those in the highrisk group can get screened at LG2 Central Avenue, Sunway Pyramid here, until tomorrow.