This Monday, the director of health policy of the Treatment Activists Group warned about the lack of data on the hepatitis situation in Portugal, recalling that in recent years no data has been available because the system has collapsed.
“Portugal did not report targets for HIV and hepatitis (…) because the system (…) somehow collapsed and has not yet been replaced,” said Luis Mendão, stressing the importance of knowing the real situation. in the country to apply the right policies.
He said he is convinced that the course of hepatitis C is positive, but without data the country cannot even demonstrate this.
When asked by Lusa, the director of the National Viral Hepatitis Program, Rui Tato Mariño, admitted that data collection “can always be improved”, which is an international problem, but insisted that, despite everything, in the last two years it is hepatitis that can be prepared two reports.
“There is a lot of data about what happens with hepatitis and its consequences, blood donors, tests performed, hospitalized patients, transplants,” he added.
Tato Mariño also said that internationally there is also a problem with acute hepatitis (the first human hepatitis disease), in which “the number of cases reported to health authorities is lower than what actually exists.”
“On the other hand, these are diseases that in most cases a person is not aware of, so they have no symptoms, and some of them are chronic cases that last for many years, for example, hepatitis B, hepatitis A “A person can be diagnosed 20 or 30 years later and it’s not really an acute case,” he explained to explain the difficulty of collecting data.
Luis Mendao, for his part, pointed out the lack of a monitoring system agreed with the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Control, which allows “all countries in the European region to use the same indicators and collect them” to determine the current situation. the situation and what needs to be done.
“There is nothing crazy about this, but the problem is that health information systems in Portugal are slow, many are incompatible with each other, and, in addition, doctors complain that they have little time to “do the paperwork” of notifications.” , explained Luis Mendao, emphasizing the need to find a system that works.
The person in charge told Lusa about the World Hepatitis Summit 2024, which will be held in Lisbon from April 9 to 11, with the participation of experts from more than 100 countries. The main goal is to discuss and achieve the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of eliminating hepatitis by 2030.
Particular attention will be paid to some national projects, such as HEPS – Hepatitis Expert Support GAT – Treatment Advocate Groups, which received a LIVER4ALL 2023 grant from Gilead Sciences Global, which aims to improve knowledge and early identification of vulnerable populations. risk of hepatitis C and hepatitis B infection in community screening programs.
“GAT has a national Portuguese integrated community screening network where we offer tests for HIV, hepatitis C, hepatitis B and syphilis,” explained Luis Mendao, recalling that the group has about 25 partner organizations and that the goal is to “diagnose as early as possible.”
“One of the problems with viral hepatitis is that for many years the disease is usually asymptomatic. But over time, maybe 25 years or sometimes 30, the liver disease will begin to worsen and people’s lives will become dangerous,” he explained, drawing attention to the need to diagnose and treat as quickly as possible.
He also emphasized the importance of community associations to help improve health literacy so that the most vulnerable populations can access health care.
“Through this project, by testing populations at risk of hepatitis B, we can offer vaccination to people who do not have hepatitis C,” the official said, adding that it is a low-cost vaccine that is part of the National Vaccination Programme. (MNV), but “there are a number of conditions that increase the barrier to access for adults.”
GAT estimates that the program tested 25,000 people a year for hepatitis B and about 30,000 people for hepatitis C.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.