Dunedin Hepatitis C Resource Centre Otago has recently had its funding cut by central government, leaving them needing to seek new funding streams or close their doors entirely.
The reason given by the Government for their decision is that “The Ministry of Health has taken steps to streamline and consolidate its investment in national Hepatitis C services” and “funding has been re-prioritised to support services for people who inject drugs and who are most at risk of contracting hepatitis C.” Annette King, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Labour Spokesperson for Health, stated that this was a decision that is simply “short-sighted and penny pinching.”
The Dunedin centre is one of two Hepatitis C specific centres across New Zealand, with the other being located in Christchurch, and they both serve the whole of the South Island. Allison Beck, Health Promotion Lead for the Hepatitis C Resource Centre Otago Southland, said that although other Hepatitis centres exist within New Zealand, the others are concerned with more than just Hepatitis C and have more funding than Hepatitis C Resource Centre Otago. She said the funding has been cut because she gets “the feeling it’s easier just to let them die.”
The centre runs on a meagre $45,000 funding per annum, which includes a wage and all of the necessary overhead costs. It helps provide treatment, advocacy, and support to anyone suffering from the Hepatitis C virus in New Zealand. Allison Beck said they can provide the support and treatment they do on the limited funding they have due to a “kind landlord who has reduced our rent” and a “huge amount of community help,” including catering and buildings they need for the events they run for those involved in the centre and to raise awareness.
Currently, one in 100 New Zealanders suffer from the virus, meaning approximately 50,000 people live with chronic Hepatitis C in New Zealand. Of these, up to 30,000 don’t even know they have contracted the virus until they discover they have developed liver disease or even occasionally cirrhosis. The virus is “only spread through blood-to-blood contact, in particular through the sharing of needles and syringes, although one can also catch it through toothbrushes, razors, rough sex, piercing, fighting and even notes or straws used for snorting drugs. Allison Beck noted that “there’s been lawyers, pilots, and all sorts of people” who have been helped through the centre, so it is not limited to drug users, as the social stigma seems to suggests.
Currently, sufferers of Hepatitis C receive government-funded treatment over a 24-48 week course of pegylated interferon and ribavirin, which have “horrendous physical side effects” and only a 20-50 percent chance of curing the illness, according to Allison. Due to this seemingly ineffective state-funded treatment plan, sufferers have looked elsewhere to get hold of better performing medication. One new treatment, consisting of daclatasvir, subfostbovir and ribavirin, provides incredible results for 98 percent of those who have Hepatitis C over just a 12-week course. Unfortunately, the government have refused to fund it, leaving clinics across the country promoting the use of an Australian ‘buyer’s club’, which is funded for all Australian citizens, and only costs $2000-$4000 per treatment period.
Jill Lane, Director National Services Purchasing, told Critic that the role of Pharmac, the government agency, which decides the pharmaceuticals to publicly fund is to “secure the best health outcomes possible, from the amount of funding possible.” Lane added that Pharmac is keen to fund new treatments that improve outcomes for patients and is actively looking for ways in which these hepatitis C treatments can be made affordable for New Zealand.”
Lane went on to say that Pharmac is “actively assessing a number of different antiviral agents for hepatitis C, including: Sofosbuvir, Ledipasvir, Paritaprevir, Simeprevir.” Despite these having large clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of using them to treat the virus, Lane noted, “funding would be at a level of some tens of millions of dollars, which needs to be considered carefully against all other funding options.”
A pharmaceutical company, named AbbVie, released a press release last year entitled, “It’s time for action on Hepatitis C in New Zealand”, which provided several scientific-based reasons why there should be a concerted effort for Hepatitis C to be “eliminated in New Zealand by 2030.”