SUMMARY: New drugs can cure up to 95 percent of patients with hepatitis C, a virus that can be debilitating or deadly. And there’s been a 20 percent rise in new infections from 2015 to 2016 due to the opioid epidemic. In Oregon, a state hard-hit by the disease, new medicines combined with the big surge in those looking for treatment, has led to a unique care model. Special correspondent Cat Wise reports.
In Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation has waged war against Hepatitis C.
With infection rates among Cherokee Indians nearly five times higher than other racial or ethnic groups in the U.S., the group has become the first community in the country and one of only a few in the world to set a goal of completely eliminating the virus from its population.
The virus, which is most commonly transmitted through the sharing of needles, can lead to liver damage, cancer and even death.
That’s why Cherokee Nation officials began working with the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma State Health department and federal health officials to launch an initiative to tackle Hep C by boosting screening efforts and using the latest pharmaceutical research.
Because the federal government is responsible for providing health care to all American Indians, more members of the Cherokee Nation and other native groups pass through tribal hospitals and outreach clinics.
Dr. Jorge Mera, Director of Infectious Diseases for the Cherokee Nation, says that makes it easier to screen nearly everyone for hepatitis C, a cornerstone of the project.
“Most of our patients will come in through the system at some point,” Mera said. “We will be able to screen them, and once we screen them and detect that they’re positive, engage them in care and hopefully treat them and cure them.”
One distinction being made is testing of all patients over age 20, a departure from the former strategy of singling out patients who had a history of intravenous drug use.
“We’re not doing screening based on risk factors, first because we know it doesn’t work well,” Mera said. “Many providers will not ask risk factors with patients. They don’t have the time to do it or it is a sensitive issue.”
Mera said he hopes the partnership will lead to discoveries that will be useful nationwide.
“We won’t be able to extrapolate what we do or find to every medical scenario in the United States, but I think everybody will learn a little bit from some of the things we did.”
SUMMARY: A new drug has a 90 to 100 percent chance of curing the Hepatitis-C virus, but costs tens of thousands of dollars for a course of treatment. The announcement by the manufacturer that it earned more than $2 billion in the year’s first quarter raises the question, who should pay when drugs are highly effective, but extremely expensive? Hari Sreenivasan reports on the profits, coverage and costs.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): ....Who should pay when drugs are very effective, but extremely expensive?
That’s an important question for the U.S. health care system as new treatments come along, and it’s a matter of real concern over a new drug that has a 90 percent to 100 percent chance of curing the Hepatitis-C virus. Its manufacturer announced record sales yesterday of more than $2 billion in just the first quarter of the year.
Profits, coverage and costs are all at issue, as Hari Sreenivasan reports.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): Kim Bossley knows how fragile life can be. In 2005, Bossley was diagnosed with Hepatitis-C, a blood-borne virus that can destroy the body’s liver.
KIM BOSSLEY: I went from stage one to stage four, decomposed liver, very quickly.
HARI SREENIVASAN: News of her rapidly declining health was devastating for the 46-year-old mother of two.
KIM BOSSLEY: You fall into a depression when you’re diagnosed with Hep-C. Your own mortality rate hits you.
DR. GREGORY T. EVERSON, University of Colorado Hospital: That’s a pretty good response.
HARI SREENIVASAN: This fall, after nine years of battling the virus, Kim Bossley was accepted into a treatment trial with a new drug called Sovaldi.
DR. GREGORY T. EVERSON: So, Kim, we will check your labs here.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Almost immediately after taking Sovaldi, the Hepatitis-C virus disappeared.
