Through the Pan American Health Organisation’s (PAHO) Strategic Fund, the Guyana Government has secured a lower cost for Hepatitis C treatment for patients and has launched a programme to treat persons.
A recent collaboration with PAHO has prompted a programme specifically designed to provide free Hepatitis C treatment to patients, the Hepatitis C Treatment Programme, as the Government will now only pay US$160 for Hep C treatment per patient.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony (centre), Chief Medical Officer Dr Narine Singh (fourth, inner left), and PAHO/WHO Representative Dr Luis Codina (third, inner right) holding Hepatitis C medication along with Dr Pedro Lewis, Director of the National Blood Transfusion Service (second, inner right) and other officials
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, while delivering the feature address at the launching ceremony of the free programme, said that after trying to find solutions on how to source Hep C treatment for a reasonable cost that would sustain the execution of a free programme, officials here decided to speak with PAHO.
“The cost of these medications were really high. In some cases, to treat a patient many years ago would have been about US$8000 per patient. And more recently when we were trying to look for solutions; how do we treat our Hepatitis C patients? What we found is that if we went the brand name drug, it would probably cost us approximately about US$2000 per patient, and that’s still quite a lot of money to spend per patient, especially if you want to run the programme [for] free. And so, we spoke to PAHO. Through the Strategic Fund, they’re buying in bulk, we can actually get the price down nicely for you,” he said.
The Health Minister said that Hepatitis C has “been a different challenge for us” as compared to Hepatitis B – the two most common Hepatitis viruses in the world.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2019, reported that 296 million people worldwide are living with Hepatitis B, 58 million are living with Hepatitis C, and 1.5 million people were newly infected with chronic Hepatitis B.
With the recent introduction of the Dialysis Support Programme whereby finance up to $600,000 per annum worth of dialysis treatment was provided to dialysis patients, Dr Anthony said that the testing of those patients has created a database of persons who have onstage renal failure.
To this end, he noted that these persons are being screened because a percentage of these persons can also have Hep C. From this, the Ministry would be able to have a more comprehensive database of patients who may need Hep C treatment.
“Because we have now been able to give dialysis patients assistance, we have a lot for more persons who have onstage renal failure that has now registered with us. And one of the things that we have been doing is screening these persons because a percentage of these persons can also have Hep C. From these different sources, we’re able to have a more comprehensive database of patients who we think may need treatment,” he explained.
Over the past few weeks, Dr Anthony said that the Ministry has been reaching out to patients who have tested positive for Hepatitis C.
“Over the last couple of weeks, we have been calling these persons up, getting them to come into the clinic. We have started a process of retesting them. And once they test positive – just to confirm – we now have an algorithm that we’ve put together to make sure that we can offer them treatment,” he added.
The Health Minister also announced that clinic hours will also be introduced for Hepatitis C patients. A room has been set aside at the National Treatment and Care Centre where patients can go and get their treatments.
“We wanted to have a clinic, a permanent clinic where patients would know that they can come here and get their treatment and so we have set aside a room at the National Treatment and Care Centre and we’ve set aside a special day, in the afternoons, when patients who are Hep C patients can come there, the doctors would be there to be able to treat these patients.”
He said that there is an estimated 500 to 600 persons who may need Hep C treatment, and if there is ever a need where clinic hours would have to be extended, it would be to accommodate the treatment of those patients.
Hepatitis C can lead to serious health problems like liver damage, cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), liver cancer, and even death.
Dr Anthony believes prevention is key; “We can actually prevent someone, years down the road from having cancer. That’s how significant this is,” he said.
First
The launching of the Hepatitis C Treatment Programme is historic as it not only aligned with World Hepatitis Day 2022 on Wednesday but because it also is the first of its kind, not only in Guyana but in the Caribbean.
“All of us should be proud, as this, as far as I’m aware, is the first in the Caribbean, so we’re leading the way and I think that’s also a very positive thing.”
He said that if Guyana wants the rest of the region to follow in its footsteps, the necessary officials must provide the documentation on this experience so that countries would be able to access this information.
“If we want the rest of the region to follow what we have done then we have to do the research, we have to do the documentation and I would really like to see them published on this particular experience so that persons would be able to access this information and say, “yes, this is affordable. This is doable. And we can follow the example of Guyana and make it happen for our country,” he said.
Dr Frank Anthony added, “And I think once we’re able to do that, we’ll be contributing to reducing Hepatitis, not only in Guyana but reducing Hepatitis in the rest of the Caribbean.”
The Hepatitis C Treatment Programme will officially enrol its first set of patients on Wednesday.
Present at the launch was Chief Medical Officer, Dr Narine Singh, and Director at the National Blood Transfusion Service, Dr Pedro Lewis. (G2)
