Gastro Health Suppport Group Sep 19, MIami FL

FDA Reaches Out to Minorities During Hepatitis Awareness Month

Did you know that millions of Americans (mostly baby boomers) are living with chronic Hepatitis and up to 2/3 may not even know they are infected? Annually, in May, the public health community commemorates “Hepatitis Awareness Month” to bring attention to this disease, its symptoms, testing, and treatment options. This year, we are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct outreach for minority groups most affected by Hepatitis: Asian/Pacific Islanders (API) and African-Americans (AA).

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Hepatitis C is expensive to treat, so curing it could yield huge economic benefit.

While a new generation of safer, more effective oral medications to treat hepatitis C patients may cost tens of thousands of dollars for a 12-week regiment, investing in these new therapies could generate savings estimated at more than $3.2 billion annually in the U.S. and five European countries, according to a new study.

The higher cure rate and lessened side-effects of treating patients with an all-oral combination of ledipasvir and sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF) results in greatly reduced absenteeism and improved workplace productivity that can translate into enormous benefit, according to the new economic model used by researchers at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, VA.

"From a clinical standpoint, we've long known about the devastating health impacts that chronic hepatitis C has on a patient," said Zobair Younossi, MD, chairman of the department of medicine at Inova and lead researcher on the study. "But given the significant side-effects previously associated with treating the disease, notably fatigue and neuropsychiatric side effects, we were interested in looking at the impact of new treatments on patients' ability to work, and in a broader sense, how this effects employers and overall economies."

Read more: http://www.sciencecodex.com/curing_hepatitis_c_could_yield_huge_economic_benefit-157297#ixzz3aPv0bT24

UK: Man given HIV and hepatitis from blood transfusion finally wins apology - but still fighting for compensation

Mark Ward was being treated for haemophilia as a teenager in the 1980s when he became one of thousands made ill from infected blood supplies 

 A man who was infected with HIV through a blood transfusion in the 1980s is demanding financial compensation after finally getting an apology from the Government.

Mark Ward said his life was destroyed when he tested positive with the virus at age 15 after receiving tainted blood at the Royal Free Hospital in North London.

Athough, at 45, he has outlived doctors' expectations, he grew up with a “death sentence” hanging over him, dependent on a daily dosage of drugs with no idea how long he will live.

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State Moves To Make Costly Hepatitis C Drugs More Accessible To Medicaid Patients

HARTFORD — Connecticut is poised to make a new class of costly hepatitis C drugs more accessible to the state's poorest patients.

The state Department of Social Services will classify Sovaldi, Harvoni and Viekira Pak as preferred drugs in its Medicaid program, which means they will be "readily available to our clients,'' said department spokesman David Dearborn.

The department is also simplifying its prior authorization process, which had been criticized by advocates for hepatitis C patients as a tactic designed to limit access to the expensive but highly effective treatments.

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Blue Cross Withholds Cure from Hepatitis C Patients, Lawsuit Claims

LOS ANGELES, May 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Shernoff Bidart Echeverria Bentley LLP filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court today accusing Blue Cross of withholding a cure for Hepatitis C based only upon profits, in violation of California law.

The plaintiff, Shima Andre, suffers from Hepatitis C, a contagious liver disease that can lead to complications including severe liver damage, infections, cirrhosis, liver cancer, and even death. But a new treatment is radically changing the lives of those living with Hepatitis C.  The treatment—Harvoni— was just approved by the FDA in 2014 and was even designated as a “breakthrough therapy” for its revolutionary ability to treat and cure Hepatitis C. In clinical trials, Harvoni cured Hepatitis C in 95-99% of patients within only twelve weeks.

But according to the lawsuit, Blue Cross has arbitrarily chosen to give the treatment only to those patients suffering from the worst stages of liver damage. Despite the opinions of other patients’ treating doctors,  they are told by Blue Cross that they must wait for the cure, suffer serious liver damage, and only then will they be eligible for Harvoni. No known medical study supports this decision—and no part of Shima’s insurance policy grants Blue Cross this arbitrary authority.

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Few Children Vertically Co-Infected With HIV and HCV Are Treated for HCV and the Response Is Low: Presented at ESPID

LEIPZIG, Germany -- May 15, 2015 -- Approximately 20% of children vertically infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) had already developed liver fibrosis by the end of adolescence, according to findings presented during a Short Oral Presentation Session on May 14th at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the European Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID).

“Rates of sustained viral response were very low in this small cohort, arousing the need of new therapeutic approaches for this population that may benefit from new drugs for HCV treatment,” said Talia Sainz-Costa, MD, Paediatrics, La Paz University Hospital, IdiPAZ Health Research Institute, Madrid, Spain, who noted the paucity of data regarding the natural history of children with vertical HIV/HCV co-infection and their response to anti-HCV treatment.

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