“The biggest problem is that there are patients who don’t know they have hepatitis C,” he admits. Dr. Francisco Jorquera PlazaHead of Digestive Department Leon Hospital Complex (Kaule) and is responsible for the digestive system Hospital San Juan de Dios de Leonas part of World Hepatitis Day, which is celebrated this Sunday, July 28, about an inflammatory liver disease that is asymptomatic and kills 3,500 people worldwide every day, 13 of them in Spain.
In this context, the specialist, one of the nine experts who signed the “Decalogue to Eliminate Hepatitis C”, published in the prestigious journal “Nature”, assures that “Spain is one of the few countries that can achieve the goal set by the World Health Organization (WHO) by 2030” thanks to a “magic model”.
“In 2015, there was an agreement between Ministry of Healthmedical workers and patient associations so that everyone who needed it could have access to innovative drugs that could cure the C virus permanently and with virtually no side effects,” he recalls, speaking about the free interferon antiviral drugs that became a real therapeutic revolution comparable to the discovery of penicillin.
Since then, more than 170,000 patients have been treated in Spain, avoiding cirrhosis with serious consequences. “The C virus was cloned in 1989, the year I became a specialist doctor, and now, approaching professional retirement, I can celebrate that we have cured all the patients, although many were left behind and others “developed liver cancer or had to undergo a transplant.”
Of course, there are still undetected patients, made worse by the fact that many of them are concentrated in vulnerable groups or at risk of social isolation, and as this year’s motto goes, “It’s time to act.” “We are meeting periodically with all the organizations that potentially affected people trust and planning awareness-raising talks to reach out to them and put all the resources at their disposal,” he explains. And, in his own words, “we can eliminate hepatitis C at the moment, but only in places where we know it exists.”
“Hepatitis C is transmitted only from an infected person to a healthy person. So every time we cure a patient, we prevent others from becoming infected in various ways, such as sexually, so we help break the chain of transmission,” he recalls after focusing on screening the population at greatest risk, in order to expose them to the greatest risk. An expired virus. Because “a simple capillary puncture” allows us to detect antibodies and determine the viral load in those hidden patients, who in every second case have a significant degree of fibrosis.
The alliance system, which is key
“Partnership is the most important thing in the fight against any disease. The way we are working in Spain with the C virus and moving in the same direction is a clear example of successful collaboration,” says Dr. Jorquera in his commitment to working to stay ahead of the disease: “Well-organized health is effective for society. Health care spending is not a real expense, it is an investment.”
“Today, access to innovation, new treatments or diagnostics is difficult due to limited resources; but there are creative ways to fund them,” he defends.