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Text: 'Eastern Region Hepatitis C Team Information Video'
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Text: 'What is HCV and how is it caught?'
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Dr Will Gelson (Consultant Hepatologist): Hepatitis C, HCV or Hep C is a blood-borne virus which causes
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chronic liver disease for some people. This may lead to cirrhosis
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and in some, liver failure or liver cancer. Hep C is caught through
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exposure to contaminated blood, we have extremely effective tablet
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treatments for Hepatitis C with very few side effects that clear
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the virus in 95% of people who take them.
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Text: 'About the medication'
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Maddy Pollard (ODN Advanced Clinical Pharmacist): Treatment is generally well tolerated with very few side effects.
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Some people experience headache, nausea and difficulty sleeping,
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but they should settle down quite quickly. We treat the virus
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using direct acting antiviral tablets. These act directly against the virus
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and stop is replicating. Most treatment courses are one
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tablet, once a day for 8 to 12 weeks. If treatment is not effective
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there are other options and we can try different combinations
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of drugs and different course lengths.
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Text: 'The mobile testing unit'
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Rachael Bates (Hepatology Clinical Nurse Specialist): The van goes to a wide range of venues. We like to be accessible
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to everybody. Basically, anywhere there's large groups of people we
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like to take the van. So we have a number of tests available on the van
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that we can use and the first two are screening tests. We have Matrix,
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which is a finger prick test with a result in ten minutes, and then we have
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OraQuick test, which is an oral swab, just goes round the gum.
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You get a result from that in 30 minutes. We have blood
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taking equipment where we can get a really good view
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of the liver health in general, and we also are really lucky on
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our van, we have a Cepheid machine - this is again a finger print test and
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the result comes back from that in an hour, so we're then able
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to know, does that person actually need treatment.
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Text: 'About the treatment'
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Katie Eiloart (Community Hepatology Clinical Nurse Specialist): Treatment is available at Cambridge University Hospital.
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Also, in local drug and alcohol centres around the region. Patients will attend
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clinic every four weeks to collect further medication and have a
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blood test to check that the treatment is effective. Patients will be seen at
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an initial consultation to have bloods taken and a FibroScan.
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A FibroScan is a simple ultrasound that assesses for any liver scarring
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resulting from Hepatitis C. A further blood test is done
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at the end of treatment and then the patient is invited to come
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back 12 weeks post-treatment for a final blood test to check that
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the treatment has been successful.
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Text: 'Patient support'
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Charlotte Brown (Hep C Trust Peer Coordinator): We offer our patients ongoing support. This could be anything
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from transport, you know, they may need help to their first clinic appointment
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Anthony Meade (Hep C Trust Peer): People are offered telephone appointments, so I'll be calling
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people and reminding them of their appointment. Then I'll talk about
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the treatment and what that pathway would look like. I'll be discussing
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reinfection routes, what to expect at their appointment.
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Charlotte: And also, we may signpost them to other services to help them along their journey.
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Anthony: A lot of our staff have got shared Hep C experience, so we can help
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dispel fears through them knowing people are talking to you about Hep C.
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Sometimes that can be the key that will open the door for someone accessing treatment.
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Rachael: We're really proud to work collaboratively with other services
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such as the Vaccination Outreach Team, Drug and Alcohol Services, the
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TB Outreach Team, and sexual health. We've also worked in Mosques and we'll
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be at some of the PRIDE events. We've got a really busy time
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coming up with events and if you see us out and about, come and say hello.
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Text: 'Testing for HCV is simple and treatment is FREE'
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Text: 'For more information, visit the Eastern Liver website (opens in a new tab)'
