Hepatitis C medicines must be made accessible faster than HIV drugs were | Philippe Douste-Blazy

It took decades for HIV/Aids drugs to reach the world's poorest – history must not be repeated with hepatitis C treatmentsA public health showdown is brewing over a virus that affects the lives of millions of people every year.The face-off will involve activists on one side and pharmaceutical companies on the other. It will play out in the richest cities in North America and the poorest countries in Africa. The viral scourge at the centre of this brewing confrontation is spread through blood-to-blood contact, but is treatable with expensive medicines.This scenario may remind some of the decades-long struggle to obtain access to life-saving medicines for HIV and Aids. But here we are talking about another public health threat: hepatitis C.An estimated 150-180 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C, and up to 500,000 die every year. The virus attacks the liver, yet the vast majority of people are unaware they are infected because the initial stages have no symptoms. It is the long-term effects that can be the most devastating: cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure.The showdown is over the cost and quality of medicines. Until recently, the only cure for hepatitis C involved an expensive combination of injections and tablets that lasted a year. In addition to having limited efficacy, this regimen caused serious side effects that deterred patients from finishing the full course. Now, new drugs are poised to enter the market that work more quickly, are more ef...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: theguardian.com Blogposts World news Infectious diseases Health Hepatitis C Aids and HIV Global development Source Type: news