Awareness campaign against hepatitis C with Carmelo Gómez

2024-07-26 09:51:33

In the context of World Hepatitis Day, July 28, 20 Spanish cities are looking for the last 20,000 cases of hepatitis C with an awareness campaign by the actor Carmelo Gómez, and promoted by the Alliance for the Elimination of Viral Hepatitis in Spain (AEHVE) .

Image of the awareness campaign against Hepatitis C with actor Carmelo Gómez/Assej by AEHVE

These 20 cities are included in the #hepCityFree program with the aim of finding people with hepatitis C that they do not know, because it is a silent disease that occurs without symptoms for many years and, in many times, Via. by the time he was diagnosed, he had caused irreversible liver damage. The awareness campaign of these cities and AEHVE is directed by the artist Carmelo Gómez.

Carmelo Gómez, the cure of hepatitis C, participates in this initiative whose aim is to raise awareness about the silent nature of the disease and promote both detection and treatment initiation.

Carmelo Gómez has been cured of hepatitis C

In the statement that AEHVE has spread about this campaign, it explains the case of the actor Carmelo Gómez, who like many other patients who contracted the virus through blood transfusion before it was detected and ended that way. of disease.

Like other patients, who may be infected without knowing it, Carmelo Gómez did not know about his illness until a long time after he was infected.

In his case, the diagnosis happened by chance, when in the late 90s he went to donate blood and was told that he could not because of liver disease.

In the spot of the advertisingCarmelo said that he is tired and that, above all, he is very sad because he does not know how his illness will develop.

Subsequent treatment has serious side effects and does not cure the disease. Until the emergence of direct-acting antivirals changes his way of life, he returns to normal. In a few weeks he was cured.

Effective treatment against hepatitis C

Patients who are currently diagnosed with hepatitis C know that their disease is treatable and effective in practically 100% of cases. So the importance of finding the disease early, before it causes damage to the liver that can become irreversible, shows AEHVE.

“With Carmelo, unfortunately, we arrived in time and, with the possibilities of diagnosis and treatment that we now have, we should arrive in time for the hundreds of patients who lose their lives in Spain every year because of the the cause associated with hepatitis C “, said the hepatologist Javier García-Samaniego, manager of the Alliance for the Elimination of Viral Hepatitis, which unites scientific societies and patient groups committed to eliminating the disease Hepatitis C and promoting the #hepCityFree program.

The presence of scientists think that it should be done both in all people, by testing hepatitis C in all adults between 50 and 85 years without a previous negative test, and, in particular, in vulnerable groups, where the prevalence is higher and those who have it are more difficult to access.

Dr. García-Samaniego explains: “We are talking about people who are far from regular treatment circles and who can be reached with renewable resources and alternative strategies,” explains Dr. García-Samaniego.

It is in this area that cities can help, independently or in collaboration with NGOs, because of their ability to reach these populations, especially groups of homeless people, intravenous drug users, and men of they have sex with men and risky behaviors, which are the main sources of active infection in Spain, AEHVE said.

The cities that are part of #hepCityFree are Seville, Madrid, Valencia, Gijón, Santander, La Coruña, Córdoba, Vigo, Malaga, Salamanca, Santiago de Compostela, Ferrol, León, Écija, Cáceres, Jerez de la Frontera, Pontevedra, Almería, Granada and Alcoy.

The goal is to add all Spanish cities to this initiative.

Spain, in front of the elimination of hepatitis C

With almost 170,000 patients treated and cured since 2015, Spain leads the world ranking of people treated and cured per million inhabitants. About 20,000 people with hepatitis C will seek diagnosis and treatment, which continues to cause four deaths a week, show the AEHVE.

“Spain has the opportunity to make history and become the first developed country to end a public health problem like hepatitis C. But to win this battle, we need to take what we call public health policies seriously, that is “We must follow. treatment of all cases with other actions in terms of measurement, prevention, early detection and monitoring of risk groups,” emphasized Dr. García-Samaniego, also head of the Department of Epidemiology of the La Paz University Hospital, which emphasizes the important role. of cities.