Kohima, August 21 (MExN): ARK Foundation with support from the Social Welfare Department, Nagaland in collaboration with IDS and RAF, conducted two workshops on ‘treatment literacy on Hepatitis C’ with drug users and staff of IDS Tuensang on August 17 and RAF Dimapur on August 21.
The workshops were conducted with the objective to create more literacy about treatment aspect in regard to the new treatment drugs for Hepatitis C. Participants of the workshop included drug users and NGO staff, stated a press release here.
ARK Foundation, President Ketho Angami facilitated as the resource person and dwelt on subject matters on various issues about HCV, test and diagnostics and treatment with the new oral regimens were imparted to the drug users.
Ketho stressed on need for the drug using community to take ownership of the HCV issue since it is preventable and curable. He made a presentation on the nature of HCV testing which starts initially with the antibody test followed by a series of other diagnostic test and monitoring test during treatment.
He mentioned that, Elisa test is done to detect the HCV antibodies known as the antibody test. During this test, if the result is negative it means the person has never been exposed to HCV infection. However, if the result is positive, the person needs to do HCV viral load (PCR) RNA and confirm whether the immune system has cleared it spontaneously or it is still prevailing as an active chronic HCV infection. If Elisa is negative, but CD4 is less than 200, then one need HCV viral load test to confirm HCV infection.
“To confirm HCV chronic infection- viral load test (HCV RNA) test is necessary to confirm whether you have chronic infection (that you have HCV). This will mean that, if you have detectable HCV RNA in your bloodstream, it means that you are currently infected with HCV. If your hepatitis C viral load is undetectable, then the infection has been cleared off through auto immune response and treatment is therefore not required,” he stated.
The participants were also informed on new treatment drugs. This was followed by question and answer session.
