#hepc — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #hepc, aggregated by home.social.
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'Last summer, the Congressional Budget Office released a report under the unassuming name “Budgetary Effects of Policies That Would Increase Hepatitis C Treatment.' I read it because I am the type of person who is interested in the budgetary effects of policies that would increase hepatitis C treatment.
Embedded in the report, though, was a point that will be important for just about anything the federal government tries to do to save the lives of Americans.
(. . .)
But the most interesting part of the report to me comes at the end. 'An increase in hepatitis C treatment could also affect the federal budget in other ways—for example, by leading to improved longevity and lower rates of disability,' the authors note. The latter point is pretty straightforward: If hepatitis C leads to disabilities that make people eligible for disability insurance and subsidized health coverage, then reduced hep C means lower spending on those programs. But (and this is me speculating, so blame me and not the CBO if I’m wrong) that effect is probably swamped by that of 'improved longevity.'
Simply put: curing hep C means people live longer, which means they spend more years collecting Social Security, Medicare, and other benefits. That could mean that whatever cost savings the actual hep C treatment produces might be wiped out by the fact that the people whose lives are being saved will be cashing retirement checks for longer.
I like to call it the Grim Reaper effect. The US runs a large budget deficit. It also provides far more generous benefits to seniors than to children or working-age adults. Per the Urban Institute’s regular report on government spending for children, the ratio of per capita spending on senior citizens to per capita spending on children is over 5 to 1. Put together, the deficit and the elder-biased composition of federal spending implies something that is equally important and macabre: helping people live longer lives will, all else being equal, be bad for the federal budget.
In an increasingly aging country, hep C is not the first place where the Grim Reaper effect has been felt, and it won’t be the last. I don’t have an easy fix for the situation, but it feels important to at least understand."
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Let me rephrase this headline for you: the new Mayor of San Francisco, a millionaire “gauche caviar”, is rolling back 30 years evidence-based #harmreduction policies to get drug users and drugs off the streets. #harmreduction has proven extremely effective in decreasing infections like #hiv or #hepC. What these people need is understanding the root cause of their use, often due to societal impact and #mentalhealth issues. Counseling without the rest doesn’t work. https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/lurie-plans-drug-policy-shift-20255326.php
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@jmcrookston Have you heard of the possibility of self-synthesizing the #HepC cure?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rQklSmI_F0 #FourThievesVinegarCollective -
#Hepatitis B and C claimed the lives of 1⃣.1⃣1⃣ to 1⃣.3⃣4⃣ million people in 2021/2022, mainly due to associated #liverCancer and #cirrhosis (#GBDstudy, @WHO).
#GlobalHealth #GlobalGoals #SDGs #2030Agenda #UN #SDG3 #HepB #HepC #HepatitisB #HepatitisC
https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/gho-documents/global-health-estimates/ghe2021_deaths_wbincome_new.xlsx
https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/diseases-injuries-risks/factsheets/2021-total-burden-related-hepatitis-b-level-0
https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/diseases-injuries-risks/factsheets/2021-total-burden-related-hepatitis-c-level-0
https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/376461/9789240091672-eng.pdf -
Contracted hepatitis C sometime between 1982 and 1984.
There was no cure, only treatments with heavy side effects (interferon and combo treatments) and small success rates.
In 2007 Sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) was discovered by a small lab.
A cure!
Gilead bought the lab and its patent.
In 2013 it was approved. [30 years in]
At first they tried to sell it here for sFr. 200'000.-/per cure.
Insurances refused to pay for it.
Some desperate (and rich) patients got the treatment anyway at that price. -
R to @ECDC_EU: Effective treatments are now available for both infections that can reduce the progression to severe liver disease and cancer.
Find out more about #HepB and #HepC prevention in EU/EEA in our latest report here: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/prevention-hepatitis-b-and-c-eueea-2024
[2024-07-28 17:52 UTC]
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"If there’s one lesson to be learned from this hepatitis C story, it’s that persistence pays off." Virologist and 2020 Nobel Laureate Charles M. Rice discusses the remaining frontiers in fighting hepatitis C in a Q&A: https://knowablemagazine.org/article/health-disease/2023/virologist-describes-discovery-hepatitis-c-virus?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=rerun&utm_campaign=reruns
(Lea en español: https://es.knowablemagazine.org/article/health-disease/2023/conquistas-pendientes-lucha-hepatitis-c?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=rerun&utm_campaign=reruns)
IMAGE CREDIT: CAROL AND MIKE WERNER / SCIENCE SOURCE
#KnowableMagazine #RevistaKnowable #ScienceMastodon #HepatitusC #HepC
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Hepatitis C viruses infect the liver, causing inflammation and, in the case of chronic infections, life-threatening liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. @KnowableMag recently chatted with virologist and 2020 Nobel Laureate Charles M. Rice about the remaining frontiers in fighting the virus.
Lea en español:
➡️ https://es.knowablemagazine.org/article/health-disease/2023/conquistas-pendientes-lucha-hepatitis-c?utm_source=annualreviews&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=originalsMore in the Annual Review of Immunology:
➡️ https://arjournals.annualreviews.org/eprint/FUbzwCfu7DDEzqabQtyN/full/10.1146/annurev.immunol.25.022106.141602?utm_source=annualreviews&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=originals -
RT Eurosurveillance
Re @ECDC_EU @eHealth_EU @EU_Health @emcdda @Hep_Alliance Research from 🇬🇪
a 📈 in #Hepatitis C #prevalence 2015-2021 indicates that the elimination programme has effectively tackled the country's #hepC #epidemic
Walker et al. validate & update projections of #HCV prevalence & incidence
➡️https://bit.ly/EUS2830HCV
#HepatitisDay23🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/Eurosurveillanc/status/1684843887280754688
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Lawmakers all over the country are calling on prisons to explain their poor rates of treating #HepatitisC.
Glad to see my colleague Nick Florko's #HepC reporting get results.
Original 8-part series: https://www.statnews.com/death-sentence/
Story: https://www.statnews.com/2023/01/06/officials-begin-to-probe-prisons-hepatitis-c-treatment-efforts/
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"STAT’s investigation found that 1,013 people died of hepatitis C-related complications in states’ custody in the six years after the first cure, a Gilead antiviral drug called Sovaldi, hit the market in late 2013."
Remarkable reporting from @STAT
#hepc #prisons #hepatitis #criminaljustice
https://www.statnews.com/2022/12/15/hundreds-incarcerated-people-dying-hepatitis-c-despite-simple-cure/ -
Nearly all the progress the U.S. has made in treating #HepC in prisons has come because incarcerated people filed lawsuits against their jailers. When Phil Turney took on the Idaho Department of Corrections, he didn’t even have a computer. Watch: https://www.statnews.com/2022/12/15/typewriter-in-prison-overturns-idaho-hepatitis-c-policy