One out of every 100 Americans is living with a deadly and communicable virus, yet most can't access the cure which will save their lives and halt the disease's lethal trajectory.
Hepatitis C now kills more Americans each year than HIV/AIDS and is 10 times more infectious. It has become a leading cause of liver failure and liver cancer -- the fastest-rising cause of all cancer-related deaths. For too long this blood-borne virus has silently ravaged communities across the country, often going unnoticed and untreated until it was too late. Until 2013, the only treatments for hepatitis C were painful and effective only half the time, leaving many patients with nowhere to turn, despite their diagnosis.
But now the tide is turning. Multiple treatments for hepatitis C currently offer cure rates of near 100 percent with minimal side effects. Now some of the biggest obstacles facing hepatitis C patients are health insurers.
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Thursday, August 13, 2015
Minnesota DOC Sued Over Failure to Provide New Hepatitis C Treatment Protocol
On May 1, 2015, two prisoners at MCF-Stillwater filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Centurion Managed Care (a division of Centene Corporation), DOC Commissioner Tom Roy and several physicians. The suit alleges that the defendants “refuse to provide the ‘breakthrough’ drug treatment, viz. the hepatitis-C [HCV] treatment community standard-of-care, which will cure Plaintiffs’ HCV infection in three months from its inception.”
According to a press release issued by the International Humanitarian Law Institute, the lawsuit is “the first federal civil rights class action in the nation” to challenge the failure of state prison officials to provide prisoners with a new, more effective hepatitis C treatment protocol.
The plaintiffs, Minnesota state prisoners Ronaldo Ligons and Barry Michaelson, seek to represent a class of similarly situated prisoners. Ligons, incarcerated since 1992, was prescribed the standard 48-week HCV treatment protocol using interferon in 2006. The treatment was not successful. Michaelson initially tested negative for HCV but tested positive for the disease in 2010. The suit states that Michaelson tested positive “only after being double-bunked with a bleeding, HCV-positive cellmate and his exposure to other sources of HCV in MN DOC facilities.”
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According to a press release issued by the International Humanitarian Law Institute, the lawsuit is “the first federal civil rights class action in the nation” to challenge the failure of state prison officials to provide prisoners with a new, more effective hepatitis C treatment protocol.
The plaintiffs, Minnesota state prisoners Ronaldo Ligons and Barry Michaelson, seek to represent a class of similarly situated prisoners. Ligons, incarcerated since 1992, was prescribed the standard 48-week HCV treatment protocol using interferon in 2006. The treatment was not successful. Michaelson initially tested negative for HCV but tested positive for the disease in 2010. The suit states that Michaelson tested positive “only after being double-bunked with a bleeding, HCV-positive cellmate and his exposure to other sources of HCV in MN DOC facilities.”
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Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Hepatitis C infection may fuel heart risk
Public Release: 11-Aug-2015
"Results suggest need for vigilant monitoring in those infected with the liver-damaging virus." - Johns Hopkins Medicine
People infected with the hepatitis C virus are at risk for liver damage, but the results of a new Johns Hopkins study now show the infection may also spell heart trouble.
The findings, described online July 27 in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, emerged from a larger ongoing study of men who have sex with men, many but not all of whom were infected with HIV and followed over time to track risk of infection and disease progression. A subset of the participants had both HIV and hepatitis C, two infections that often occur together.
Even though people infected with HIV are already known to have an elevated risk for heart disease, researchers emphasize their results offer strong evidence that hepatitis C can spark cardiovascular damage independent of HIV.
Specifically, the research found that study participants chronically infected with hepatitis C were more likely to harbor abnormal fat-and-calcium plaques inside their arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis and a common forerunner of heart attacks and strokes.
"We have strong reason to believe that infection with hepatitis C fuels cardiovascular disease, independent of HIV and sets the stage for subsequent cardiovascular trouble," says study principal investigator Eric Seaberg, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "We believe our findings are relevant to anyone infected with hepatitis C regardless of HIV status."
Investigators emphasize they don't know exactly how infection with the hepatitis C virus precipitates the growth of artery-clogging plaque but that their evidence is strong enough to warrant vigilant monitoring for cardiac symptoms among people infected with the virus.
"People infected with hepatitis C are already followed regularly for signs of liver disease, but our findings suggest clinicians who care for them should also assess their overall cardiac risk profile regularly," says study author Wendy Post, M.D., M.S., professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a cardiologist at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease.
Post says that at a minimum patients with hepatitis C would benefit from an annual cardiac evaluation that includes cholesterol and glucose testing, a blood pressure check and assessment of lifestyle habits.
The study involved 994 men 40 to 70 years old without overt heart disease who were followed across several institutions in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Chicago. Of the 994, 613 were infected with HIV, 70 were infected with both viruses and 17 were only infected with hepatitis C. Participants underwent cardiac CT scans to detect and measure the amount of fat and calcium deposits inside the vessels of their hearts. Those infected with hepatitis C, regardless of HIV status, had, on average, 30 percent more disease-fueling calcified plaque in their arteries, the main driver of heart attack and stroke risk. People infected with either HIV or hepatitis C, on average, had 42 percent more noncalcified fatty buildup, a type of plaque believed to confer the greatest cardiac risk.
In addition, those who had higher levels of circulating hepatitis C virus in their blood were 50 percent more likely to have clogged arteries, compared with men without hepatitis C. Higher virus levels in the blood signal that the infection is not well controlled by drugs or the immune system. Poorly controlled infection, the investigators add, may lead to more inflammation throughout the body, which can fuel blood vessel damage and thus contribute to heart disease.
Treating hepatitis C infection promptly can ward off long-term liver damage, but researchers say their findings now raise another critical question: whether a new class of medications that help 90 percent of patients clear the virus within a few short months could also halt the formation of plaque and reduce cardiac risk in the long run.
More than 2.7 million people in the United States are infected with the hepatitis C virus, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Other Johns Hopkins investigators involved in the study included Rebeccah McKibben, Sabina Haberlen, Todd Brown and Chloe Thio. Investigators from other institutions included Matthew Budoff, Mallory Witt, Lawrence Kingsley and Frank Palella.
The work was by funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under grant number RO1 HL095129, with additional support from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (grant UL1 TR 001079) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Conflict of interest disclosure: Johns Hopkins investigator Todd Brown, M.D., is a consultant for the following pharmaceutical companies: Gilead Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Abbvie, EMD Serono and ViiV Healthcare. These relationships are managed by Johns Hopkins in accordance with its policy on interaction with industry.
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Media Relations and Public Affairs
Media contacts:
Ekaterina Pesheva, epeshev1@jhmi.edu, (410) 502-9433
Stephanie Desmon, sdesmon1@jhu.edu, (410) 955-7619
Read complete press release here: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/jhm-hci081115.php
The findings, described online July 27 in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, emerged from a larger ongoing study of men who have sex with men, many but not all of whom were infected with HIV and followed over time to track risk of infection and disease progression. A subset of the participants had both HIV and hepatitis C, two infections that often occur together.
Even though people infected with HIV are already known to have an elevated risk for heart disease, researchers emphasize their results offer strong evidence that hepatitis C can spark cardiovascular damage independent of HIV.
Specifically, the research found that study participants chronically infected with hepatitis C were more likely to harbor abnormal fat-and-calcium plaques inside their arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis and a common forerunner of heart attacks and strokes.
"We have strong reason to believe that infection with hepatitis C fuels cardiovascular disease, independent of HIV and sets the stage for subsequent cardiovascular trouble," says study principal investigator Eric Seaberg, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "We believe our findings are relevant to anyone infected with hepatitis C regardless of HIV status."
Investigators emphasize they don't know exactly how infection with the hepatitis C virus precipitates the growth of artery-clogging plaque but that their evidence is strong enough to warrant vigilant monitoring for cardiac symptoms among people infected with the virus.
"People infected with hepatitis C are already followed regularly for signs of liver disease, but our findings suggest clinicians who care for them should also assess their overall cardiac risk profile regularly," says study author Wendy Post, M.D., M.S., professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a cardiologist at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease.
Post says that at a minimum patients with hepatitis C would benefit from an annual cardiac evaluation that includes cholesterol and glucose testing, a blood pressure check and assessment of lifestyle habits.
The study involved 994 men 40 to 70 years old without overt heart disease who were followed across several institutions in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Chicago. Of the 994, 613 were infected with HIV, 70 were infected with both viruses and 17 were only infected with hepatitis C. Participants underwent cardiac CT scans to detect and measure the amount of fat and calcium deposits inside the vessels of their hearts. Those infected with hepatitis C, regardless of HIV status, had, on average, 30 percent more disease-fueling calcified plaque in their arteries, the main driver of heart attack and stroke risk. People infected with either HIV or hepatitis C, on average, had 42 percent more noncalcified fatty buildup, a type of plaque believed to confer the greatest cardiac risk.
In addition, those who had higher levels of circulating hepatitis C virus in their blood were 50 percent more likely to have clogged arteries, compared with men without hepatitis C. Higher virus levels in the blood signal that the infection is not well controlled by drugs or the immune system. Poorly controlled infection, the investigators add, may lead to more inflammation throughout the body, which can fuel blood vessel damage and thus contribute to heart disease.
Treating hepatitis C infection promptly can ward off long-term liver damage, but researchers say their findings now raise another critical question: whether a new class of medications that help 90 percent of patients clear the virus within a few short months could also halt the formation of plaque and reduce cardiac risk in the long run.
More than 2.7 million people in the United States are infected with the hepatitis C virus, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
###
The work was by funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under grant number RO1 HL095129, with additional support from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (grant UL1 TR 001079) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Conflict of interest disclosure: Johns Hopkins investigator Todd Brown, M.D., is a consultant for the following pharmaceutical companies: Gilead Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Abbvie, EMD Serono and ViiV Healthcare. These relationships are managed by Johns Hopkins in accordance with its policy on interaction with industry.
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Media Relations and Public Affairs
Media contacts:
Ekaterina Pesheva, epeshev1@jhmi.edu, (410) 502-9433
Stephanie Desmon, sdesmon1@jhu.edu, (410) 955-7619
How the Heroin Crisis Ushered in a Hepatitis C Epidemic
Meanwhile, high prices and stringent requirements from insurers and Big Pharma are limiting access to effective treatment.
The first thing Amy does after rising from the brink of death is apologize.
“I’m sorry,” she says, scanning the small crowd of first-responders who have formed a semi-circle around her. She rummages through her scalp with fingernails painted lime green. By a hair, she has missed becoming the city’s latest casualty of a heroin overdose.
It’s just past 2:30 p.m. on a broiling Tuesday afternoon, and Amy (whose name has been changed to protect her privacy) is lying in a small courtyard on the side of Wing Fook Funeral Home, a few blocks from Boston Medical Center. Earlier in the day she had purchased a $20 bag of heroin and snuck behind the fence and shrubs of the funeral home to a set of semi-private benches, where she shot up and overdosed. Boston Emergency Medical Services responded to the call in less than four minutes. Amy, who is 20, is the second overdose they have fielded since noon. Already, they’d treated a 28-year-old man who had collapsed on the men’s room floor at the East Boston Public Library. In about 25 minutes, they will respond to their third overdose of the day, a 35-year-old man they’ll find unconscious on the lawn of South Boston’s Moakley Park.
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2 New Easy C Treatment Fact Sheets
Be sure to check out these 2 new Easy C Facts fact sheets on treatment for Genotype 3 and Genotype 4
Monday, August 10, 2015
Huntington mayor ‘not afraid of failure’ when preparing to launch needle exchange program
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Huntington Mayor Steve Williams says the city is looking forward to launching a syringe exchange program by Oct. 1.
“I think we did an effective job of letting folks know that this isn’t just needle exchange. This is the first step of being able to save lives and help people find a way toward recovery,” said Williams.
The first-of-its-kind pilot project in West Virginia will involve education and treatment resources along with efforts to stop the spread of infectious diseases through needle exchanges by giving addicts points of contact within the Cabell-Huntington Health Department.
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“I think we did an effective job of letting folks know that this isn’t just needle exchange. This is the first step of being able to save lives and help people find a way toward recovery,” said Williams.
The first-of-its-kind pilot project in West Virginia will involve education and treatment resources along with efforts to stop the spread of infectious diseases through needle exchanges by giving addicts points of contact within the Cabell-Huntington Health Department.
Read more...
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