Experience in treating hepatitis C

Scientific societies and patient associations have united in campaigns to shed light on 20,000 cases of hepatitis C which are estimated to still be undiagnosed and untreated in Spain. They did this on the occasion of European Testing Week, an awareness week that aims to mobilize efforts across Europe to detect, treat and prevent (#TestTreatPrevent) viral hepatitis, HIV and STIs. The campaign will last until May 27, 2024.

The campaign led by Spanish Association for the Study of the Liver (AEEH), in which there are 17 organizations participating in eliminating hepatitis C in Spaininforms about risk factors and some false myths about hepatitis C diagnosis and treatment, and encourages all people who are unsure about their serostatus to get tested. All materials from the campaign, carried out in collaboration with Gilead, are collected on the website https://xhyxc.es.

The campaign has testimony from four people who were diagnosed with hepatitis C at various times over the last 30 years and that #xHyxC encourages hesitant people to get tested, “because today the disease is curable,” they explain, and also emphasize that not only in terms of physical well-being, but also emotional and social: “it’s that costs”. “To feel better”, “for quality of life”, “to gain confidence”, “to plan for the future”, these patients reason in a shared video, which ends with the slogan of hepatologist and AEEH President Manuel Romero. Bells: “#xHyxC, hepatitis C can be cured”.

Experience in treating hepatitis C

In individual video testimonials, patients recall their experiences, which are very different in each case, as they lived through very different historical moments in terms of knowledge of the disease and available treatments. Two of them, Carmen and Rafael, were discovered while direct-acting antivirals, which cure the disease in more than 95% of cases, were still many years away. Carmen was diagnosed with the virus in 1993, and Rafael in 2000. They were only able to benefit from this treatment when hepatitis C had already caused liver damage.: Carmen lives with cirrhosis of the liver and Rafael had to have a transplant. Both agree that “I wish” it could “happen to them now,” they warn that hepatitis C is asymptomatic and urge patients who might be at risk to get a simple blood test.

Other two main characters of the campaign were cured and restore normal life. Both also agree that there are many reasons to get healthy and encourage everyone to do so. get tested in case of going through risky situations such as sharing materials (syringes and others) for drug use, unprotected sex in risky environments such as chemsex, such as razor blades or toothbrushes, tattoos, earrings or piercing performed using non-sterile material, blood transfusions or surgery before 1992.

Diego, who lived under a double stigma Coinfection with HIV and hepatitis C and founded the NGO Adhara to help patients in this situation, he remembers that new treatments were an “absolute lifesaver” for people like him and is glad that the co-infection rate is currently below 0.85% in Spain. Thanks to new treatments, hepatitis C has not affected the successful professional career of Paco, who is one of the most recognized and awarded directors and stage designers in our country, operating opera works at the Royal Theater of Madrid, the Teatro de la Zarzuela, the Gran Liceu de Barcelona, ​​the Merida Festival and a lot others.

Finally, the campaign has the testimony of Seville hepatologist Manuel Romero, president of the Spanish Association for the Study of the Liver (AEEH). According to Romero, “The story of hepatitis C in our country is a dream come true—we never could have imagined that we could cure a chronic disease in just three months and have such an impact on people’s quality of life.”

Against false myths about the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C

Propaganda materials have a great influence on misunderstandings or false topics about hepatitis C diagnosis and treatment. An example of such myths is: “I don’t need treatment until I start to feel sick.” I have heard that treatment for hepatitis C is very long, requires a lot of injections, causes physical exhaustion and requires a liver biopsy. “, “To get treatment, I would have to stop drinking alcohol and using drugs, but I didn’t,” “I got infected with hepatitis C again, so I can’t get treatment a second time,” or “Once cured, I can’t get it again.” .

Misleading statements that may discourage or hinder diagnosis and treatment.. The reality is that hepatitis C is asymptomatic in most cases, that immunity to hepatitis C cannot be achieved, so reinfection is possible, that the disease is diagnosed with a simple blood test or oral fluid sample, and that current treatments are effective, short-lived (8 to 16 weeks), have few side effects and are easy to perform.

Unmet challenges to eliminating hepatitis C

A dream has become a reality that has benefited more than 165,000 people in Spain, the country that has treated and cured the largest number of hepatitis C patients per million population. “However, although we have very difficult tasks, they are not yet completed,” explains Dr. Romero, who hopes that this campaign will be another step towards achieving what he will not hesitate to call “a great collective feat” and “a great collective feat ” “a historic success” as it will be the first time an infectious disease for which there is no vaccine has been eradicated in just three decades.

To achieve this goal, experts consider two strategies necessary: opportunistic screening by agewhich is currently developed or considered only in a few autonomous communities, such as Galicia, Cantabria or Andalusia, and which should be extended to the whole of Spain, for which a diagnostic reduction that allows Union the number of samples (technique used during COVID19) represents a great opportunity; And actively searching for cases among vulnerable populations who usually do not have access to the healthcare system: homeless people, intravenous drug users… A challenge in which important steps have also been taken in recent years.

Having expanded age-based opportunistic screening throughout Spain and progressed in identifying cases among vulnerable populations, AEEH considers it “more than reasonable” to predict that this public health problem will disappear in our country in the very short term, within two years. three years.