TOPIC:

Hi all, as it is World Hepatitis Day around the world today, here's somewhere we can all post news stories from our own countries.

worldhepatitisday.org

Some from Australia:

www.ashm.org.au/Pages/World-Hepatitis-Day-2016.aspx

www.smh.com.au/national/health/new-drug-...20160727-gqeurm.html

www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-28/hepatitis...ealth-threat/7666928

www.hepatitisaustralia.com/whd2016/

Greediad had the unmitigated cheek to tweet about it. I admonished them most severely. How dare they!

Here's one from the US White House. Comments allowed.

www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015...d-hepatitis-day-2015

Not a word about treatments. Plonker.

Could do with some handy, quick find links in one place for Twitter, eg Dr Freeman's EASL presentation, results with generics etc?

A bit busy today, but am linking to a couple of pages eg :

fixhepc.com/

fixhepc.com/blog.html

fixhepc.com/blog/item/73-fibrosis-score-hepatitis-c-drugs.html

etc ...

NOhep is also launched today.

"NOhep is a global movement aimed at uniting those working in the field of hepatitis and others from across the world around one common purpose: the elimination of viral hepatitis by 2030. NOhep is calling on individuals and organisations across the world to sign-up to be part of the next greatest achievement, the elimination of viral hepatitis."

You can find out more and join up here:

www.nohep.org

Gaj wrote: NOhep is also launched today.

"NOhep is a global movement aimed at uniting those working in the field of hepatitis and others from across the world around one common purpose: the elimination of viral hepatitis by 2030. NOhep is calling on individuals and organisations across the world to sign-up to be part of the next greatest achievement, the elimination of viral hepatitis."

You can find out more and join up here:

www.nohep.org

2030. One year after sofosbuvir patent expire

Hi Tweakmax, they are not just talking about Hepatitis C but all viral hepatitis types. Targeting about 400 million people over the next 14 years.

When talking about the treatment of hepatitis, many people seem to lock their brain in the classic "Chicken or the Egg" philosophical question, i.e. prevent&diagnose first or treatment first ... Unfortunately this "lock" means delaying the treatment which on its turn lead to people getting sicker and sicker.
Big Pharma seems to use this approach, placing the priorities alternatively:
- setting as high priority the actions of prevention and diagnosis in order to gather as many patients possible.
- then setting as high priority the treatment pretending to provide big discounts for their drugs, which in any case remain very expensive.
This is my understanding when reading the strategy to eliminate hepatitis by 2030...there is too much "talk" and less "facts" and I see this as a simple effect of the "Chicken and the Egg" debate.

As (former) patient, I say this is a completely wrong approach.
We should better think on the spinning wheel approach:
- for sure, diagnosing the patients gives a certain impulse making the wheel spin faster
- for sure, prevention has the same effect on the spinning wheel,
-however treating peoppe with effective drugs (DAAs) gives by far a real boost that makes the wheel spin much faster. If we add generic HCV drugs into equation, we have a turbocharger boost.

The more the healthcare system talks about the efforts being made to slightly increase the number of treated people while continuing to have waiting lists, the more discouragement and lack of interest towards HCV will exist among patients. Not to mention the stigma which will continue to exist.

By contrast, the more people will know that the treatment is really affordable and effective, the more people will seek to get checked, diagnosed and treated. So easy access to treatment will boost not only the treatment rate, but also the rates of getting diagnosed.
In the current political context, only the generic drugs is offering the promise of affordable treatment. So sad that by compare with the number of worldwide patients (~200 millions) only a few know about the path of generics.

BR
RHF