Point-of-care (POC) tests for hepatitis C expand testing beyond clinical settings where a blood draw is not readily available. They are an important tool in the effort to eliminate hepatitis C as an endemic disease by 2030. The only Health Canada-approved POC test is the OraQuick hepatitis C antibody test, which requires a 20-minute wait before the results can be read.
The hepatitis C community woke up to great excitement on the morning of October 5, 2020. A flurry of tweets, texts and e-mails shared the news that the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine had been jointly awarded to Dr. Michael Houghton (University of Alberta, Canadian Network on Hepatitis C), Dr. Harvey J. Alter (U.S. National Institutes of Health) and Dr. Charles M. Rice (The Rockefeller University) for their roles in the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
British Columbians can now be diagnosed with hepatitis C from a single blood test, saving time and money for both patients and the health care system. This is thanks to a new testing process introduced by the Public Health Laboratory at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), known as hepatitis C (HCV) RNA reflex testing.
Hepatitis C prevention, testing and treatment exists within the larger context of drug user health. This broader approach to hepatitis C must address the intersections of harm reduction, overdose prevention, the social determinants of health, and human rights. How can we better integrate these multiple perspectives to our work? To find out, we sat down to hear ideas from the world’s leading voices in hepatitis C at the 8th International Conference on Hepatitis Care in Substance Users (INHSU 2019) in Montreal.
Editor’s note, January 2022: Some of the approaches and technologies highlighted here are still only available in some regions of Canada. Additionally, HIV self-testing/home-based testing has now been approved for use in Canada. Canada has signed on to global targets to eliminate HIV and hepatitis C as public health threats by 2030. While ambitious, these targets are now a realistic possibility thanks to the effectiveness of modern medications. HIV treatment can suppress the virus so successfully that HIV-positive Canadians who start treatment early can have life expectancies similar to their HIV-negative peers. This also prevents the transmission of HIV to...
The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, in partnership with the Toronto Community Hep C Program (TCHCP), invited people with lived experience of hepatitis C to take part in an art project called The Face of Our Story. In that project, clay tiles depicting stories of lived experience would be displayed at the museum on World Hepatitis Day, July 28, 2016. This is the story of two artists who participated in the event.
