Health insurance should cover new medicine for Hepatitis C patients

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) -
Health experts have called on the Health Ministry to add direct-acting
antiviral Agents (DAAs) into list of drugs that public health insurance covers
so patients with Hepatitis C are treated more effectively. 

DAAs or new combinations of drugs directly target the hepatitis C virus in
different ways to stop it making copies of itself.  DAAs promise shorter
treatment times, much higher cure rates and fewer side effects. 

Assistance Professor Dr Do Duy Cuong, head of Infection Department under Bach
Mai Hospital, spoke about the new medicine at a July 24 meeting marking World
Hepatitis Day (July 28). 

Cuong said that currently, there were 50 types of DAAs and the cure rate
reached up to 95 percent. 

However, cost treatment using DAAs was high while public health insurance
participants did not have health insurance pay for the medicine, Cuong said,
adding that 90 percent of patients with Hepatitis C could not receive DAAs
treatment. 

“The Health Ministry should speed up allowing the medicines to be circulated in
Vietnam and public health insurance should co-pay it with the health insurance
fund and patients at a reasonable proportion,” he said. 

Hepatitis C is a “silent killer” because it has no obvious symptoms but can be
extremely dangerous and, in some cases, life threatening, according to the
Vietnam Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (VLBA). 

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) can be transmitted by blood, tooth extraction and
unprotected sex, and the number of infected people in the country is
increasing.  In the early stages of the disease, most hepatitis C patients have
no symptoms and it does not affect their, so most people do not realise when
they are infected, according to experts. 

A patient’s health can be severely affected when HCV transitions to cirrhosis
and liver cancer.  Patients at this stage have anorexia, indigestion, swelling
in the legs, muscle aches, cramps, numbness, itching, dizziness, fatigue and
trembling hands.  Severe complications such as gastrointestinal bleeding, fluid
retention in the abdomen and drowsiness can occur. 

Assistance Professor Dr Nguyen Quoc Anh, Bach Mai Hospital director, said there
were about 10 million people carrying Hepatitis B and nearly 1 million people
carrying Hepatitis C in the country. 

“About 10-15 percent of the population was infected with Hepatitis B. The
disease can develop quickly, causing liver failure and liver cancer,” Quoc Anh
said. 

Despite the fact that there was Hepatitis B a vaccine, the disease was still
burdening both the health sector and patients because of life-long treatment,
he said.-VNS/VNA