Pubdate: Tue, 11 Feb 2003
Source: Abbotsford Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 The Abbotsford Times
Contact:  http://www.abbotsfordtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1009
Author: Tony Hebden
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?143 (Hepatitis)

ADDICTS NEED OUR HELP

The Editor:

I am a little perplexed as to why Dr. Parker would choose to focus on the 
statistics for HIV infection when dismissing harm reduction and ignoring 
the statistics on hepatitis C ['Don't be so sure that harm reduction is the 
answer,' The Times, Feb. 7], as it is with the latter disease where we 
truly have a public health crisis in British Columbia.

In 2003, approximately 15,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with hepatitis C, 
of which one third will be British Columbians.

This extremely high infection rate in B.C. is not surprising as we already 
have the highest hepatitis C infection rate in the country.

Put simply, it has been calculated that 1.5 per cent of all British 
Columbians are currently infected, and a lot of them don't know it yet.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control has estimated that 50 per cent of all 
individuals were infected as a result of IV drug use.

However, this also means that 50 per cent were not, so we cannot simply 
dismiss this as a drug users' disease or a downtown eastside disease.

Many people are infected with hepatitis C as a result of getting a tattoo 
or piercing using unsterilized equipment or sharing a toothbrush or from a 
transfusion they received in the 1970s or 1980s.

Bottom line is that the disease is not staying among the IV drug using 
community but is leaking out into the general population.

So what are we doing about this problem?

Doing nothing and telling drug addicts to stop injecting is clearly not 
going to work and is only going to increase the burden on our healthcare 
system as treating liver failure is an extremely expensive undertaking.

Tony Hebden, PhD, Abbotsford
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager