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Amidst complaints from badociations about the lack of drugs to meet new patients, the Ministry of Health announced on Thursday 5 the launch of a hepatitis C elimination plan for By 2030. The strategy provides for the reduction of stages (such as people living with HIV / AIDS, dialysis patients, drug users and babies of mothers with 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 STI 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. The manual, with indications of how treatment should be done, was launched in March 19659004. Member of the Optimism Group, in support of people with hepatitis, Carlos Varaldo said that a considerable number of patients have been diagnosed with hepatitis C and treatment indications, but have not not yet received the necessary remedies. "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 liver injury.
In a letter sent to the Minister, the badociation also considers that the acquisition must be made quickly, at the risk of
Adele said 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 remainder in 2019.
Numbers
L & # 39; last year, 24,460 patients with hepatitis C were identified the previous year, 28 3 97 confirmed cases The decrease is attributed to the improvement of the quality of the database. The disease is more common in people over 40 years old and can lead to cirrhosis and cancer.
The director says that currently 325,000 people have 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. However, it excludes the possibility of extending the vaccination recommendation for men who have bad with men across 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 dose at 21 days, with one shot After the first year, for the director, this scheme, 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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