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The prediction is to meet 50,000 patients annually by 2024 from next year (Francois Nascimbeni / AFP )
In the middle of complaints of badociations on lack of Ministry of Health announced Thursday, the 5th, the launch of a plan to eliminate hepatitis C by 2030. The strategy provides for the reduction of steps (such as people living with HIV / AIDS, dialysis patients, drug users and babies of mothers who have hepatitis C).
The forecast is to serve 50,000 patients annually by 2024 starting next year. This year, treatments for 19,000 patients would be delivered. The amount announced for 2018 by the ministry however is much lower than it had been in 2017. Last year, the portfolio had already committed to offering at least 50,000 treatments per year, starting in 2018.
The director of the IST department, HIV / AIDS and Viral Hepatitis at the Ministry of Health, Adele Benzaken, attributes the shift in schedule and reduction of goals for this year to delay in the publication of a document that would be essential for the beginning of the clinical protocol process for therapeutic guidelines.
Member of the Optimism Group, in support of the person with hepatitis Carlos Varaldo said that there is a considerable number of patients who have the diagnosis of l & # 39; 39, hepatitis C and the indication of treatment, but who, until now, have not received the necessary drugs. "This is creating a huge wait, are the drug stocks gone, why have not doctors and patients been warned?", He asks, "today, all people Hepatitis C has an indication of treatment, regardless of the degree of damage to the liver.
In a letter sent to the Minister, the badociation also believes that the acquisition should be made promptly, At the risk of
Adele says that a purchase of 8,000 treatments was made to meet the immediate demand and that the drugs should be delivered within one month. a process for the purchase of 50,000 treatments will begin soon, of which 20,000 would be delivered this year and the rest in 2019.
Numbers
Last year, 24,460 patients with hepatitis C were identified the previous year, 28 397 confirmed cases. decline is attributed to the improvement of the quality of the database. The disease is more common in people over 40 years old and can cause cirrhosis and cancer.
The director says that currently, 325,000 people are suffering from hepatitis and do not know. For Adele, one of the advances of the eradication plan is to change the logic of acquisition of the drugs used in the treatment. The change will allow the purchase of the treatments in advance, before the demand occurs. "The system was unfair, we will benefit from this process."
Critics of the proposal, however, consider that the program sets bold goals without being able to put the measures into practice. Between 2000 and 2016, Brazil recorded 23,000 deaths due to hepatitis C. This accounts for just over 70% of deaths caused by hepatitis. Other types of hepatitis (A and B) are also of concern.
The transmission rate of hepatitis A cases doubled in 2017 compared to 2016. Last year, there were 2,086 cases. More than half of the infections were recorded in São Paulo, due to an epidemic, caused by badual transmission, in men aged 20 to 39 years. "The problem has been corrected.It was recommended at the time vaccination between groups of men having bad with men," Adele said. It excludes the possibility of extending the vaccination recommendation to men who have bad with men throughout the country.
Last year, the country recorded 13,482 cases of hepatitis B, less than the 14,702 reported in 2016 "Despite the fall, Adele notes that this form of infection is the second cause of death among viral hepatitis.In 2016 there were 477. "Vaccination is the best prevention strategy," he says.In order to cope with declines in vaccination indicators, Adele said that the adoption of "accelerated vaccination" is being studied at the Ministry of Health
In this scheme, after the first application, a second dose would be administered seven days later and the third at 21 days, with one shot After the first year, for the director, this pattern, which should be tested first in an Aboriginal community, could reduce the risk that patients will take the first doses and forget to complete the schema.
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