SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 25 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Drug addicts are one of the most vulnerable groups with the highest prevalence of hepatitis C (HCV). These are patients with little access to health services through the usual channels and low adherence to prevention and medical treatment.
The Drug Addict Care Units in the Canary Islands, in collaboration with the hospitals of the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS), are already responding to these difficulties through the active search and close assistance of these patients. This is shown by the new documentary ‘Breaking Barriers’, framed in the project ‘G-Stories, ideas full of life’, promoted by Gilead Spain.
People with HCV with addictions urgently need care if the objectives set by the World Health Organization (WHO) are to be achieved and hepatitis C eliminated before 2030. Therefore, promoting micro-elimination initiatives and facilitating access to diagnosis and early treatment is essential and a priority to achieve control and subsequent elimination of this virus, as well as other types of viral hepatitis.
According to Dr. Francisco Pérez, head of the digestive system at the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria, “the care program for people with drug addiction that we have active has achieved great results. In just six months we managed to treat and cure the first 100 patients and in three years there are already more than 300. In this time, and despite the difficulties of the Covid pandemic, we have achieved the elimination of hepatitis C in the Drug Addict Care Units of the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, we have no more patients infected with Hepatitis C among the methadone users of these centers The coordinated work with the professionals of San Miguel Addictions has allowed this achievement: not only have we been able to cure the patients, but new infections and reinfections have been avoided in the centers They are patients who are infinitely grateful that someone has cared to look for them, bring them to the hospital and cure them.”
The specialist insists on the importance of breaking the barrier of traditional consultations and actively looking for the patient to start the care processes and start their treatment as soon as possible. “Bringing prevention closer to the patient is essential. A single drop of blood, analyzed in less than 24 hours in the hospital, has managed to speed up the diagnostic processes that are completed in the hospital in a single day of consultation. The establishment of new adapted circuits has made it possible to avoid waiting lists and bring treatment closer, managing to adhere to this group. We have managed to convert more than two years of waiting list into a single click of the computer and low adherence rates into cure results greater than 95%”, has affirmed.
This care program for vulnerable populations with high prevalence aims to simplify the two essential steps to achieve HCV elimination: the diagnostic process and outsourcing of treatment. Likewise, it aims to promote unity and communication between the patient and all the professionals involved in the care process for these viral diseases. “With this project we make sure that the patient does not abandon the treatment and, finally, is cured. We accompany them throughout the process. They feel cared for, they feel that we care about them. You have helped them recover their lives and it is something that They are very grateful”, highlights Ana La Serna, from the Pharmacy Service of the UAD Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the San Miguel Addictions detoxification center.
For Luz Goretti, an expert at San Miguel Addictions and the UAD Laguna Pharmacy Service, “having achieved what seemed impossible at first is very gratifying. We have managed to outsource a hospital dispensing treatment and, with this, get closer to the goal of the elimination of the virus in the drug-dependent population. With this program, we have been able to identify and care for many patients, something on which we began to work with enthusiasm, but without certainty, but, now, we are also certain that it works and improves these people’s lives.”
The San Miguel Addictions detoxification center is accredited by the ‘Hepcelentes’ program, promoted by Gilead and the Spanish Society of Health Directors (SEDISA). The main objectives of this initiative are to serve as a guide for addiction centers to improve the management of patients with HCV, to help standardize the way they work, to promote the creation of circuits that facilitate the diagnosis of the infection, the treatment and monitoring of patients and the creation of coordination mechanisms between addiction and primary care centers and hospital units.
‘G-STORIES, IDEAS FULL OF LIFE’
Gilead Sciences’ ‘G-Stories, ideas full of life’ documentaries seek to publicize success stories that have helped solve health challenges such as hepatitis C. With this initiative, the company intends not only to underline the importance of these projects, but also to share these good practices and that they can be adopted in other places. You can see the G-Stories video at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmYiXeNsXAY
