© Reporters / SPL
Flemish Minister of Welfare and Health Hilde Crevits (CD&V) is investing 150,000 euros to expand the activities of nurses throughout Flanders in the fight against hepatitis C among drug users. “The health gains that we can achieve with this initiative are significant,” it sounds Thursday on the occasion of World Hepatitis Day.
Bron: BELGIAN
Drug users are at a higher risk of contracting and passing on hepatitis C, which is mainly caused by sharing needles to inject drugs.
Until now, infected drug users could only be accompanied in Limburg and Antwerp, where around 300 people were accompanied last year. Nurses closely monitor patients there and try to reach drug users better, so that the threshold for starting treatment is lower.
This operation is now being extended to the whole of Flanders, so that in the long term 500 people can be monitored annually.
Hepatitis C can often be treated well and effectively these days. Yet only 1 to 2 percent of people who use drugs and have chronic hepatitis C start treatment each year. “We have been experimenting with ways to reach this vulnerable group in recent years. It is now time to apply what we have learned throughout Flanders,” said Minister Crevits.