MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — HepConnect, a new five-year, multi-million dollar initiative to support people already on the front lines of the opioid crisis launched in West Virginia on Wednesday.
“As a delegate, on this issue I feel like I have the easy job because I can read the statistics and think about broad policies but it’s people in this room that I think are doing the hard job,” Delegate Evan Hansen said. “You’re providing care, you’re managing the program and you’re doing the research that’s going to make a dent in this epidemic.”
Overdoses might be the most obvious way the opioid crisis is killing West Virginians, but about half of the 2.4 million Americans with the hepatitis C virus — another consequence of the opioid epidemic — don’t know they have the deadly virus. HCV can lead to liver failure, liver cancer and ultimately death.
Executive Director of Government Affairs for Gilead Sciences Derek Spencer said HepConnect has three pillars, all designed to address to the underlying issues related to HCV.
The first pillar is increasing the rate at which HCV is detected by improving access to screening and linking people to care. Spencer said because of the disproportionate risk of HCV among drug users regular screening should be encouraged.
There are an estimated 20,000 people with undetected HCV in West Virginia and the first pillar aims to make sure they know and provide them with access to care.
The second pillar is harm reduction — meaning everyone who doesn’t have HCV shouldn’t have to worry about getting help to avoid it — and community education.
“The stigma around IV drug use is paralyzing,” Spencer said. “And it’s just not the stigma for the person who’s living in active addiction who can feel when we care, who can feel when they are being welcomed and quite frankly, can feel when they’re not … there’s also stigma for the family and loved ones who deal with someone that they care about and so the shame is paralyzing.”
Stigma is a huge barrier to care. Spencer said stigma is caused by ignorance and biases, normally about something that’s not understood and makes us afraid. To break stigma knowledge has to be created and shared.
“Success would look like community education that went from a hotel today to a dining room table where moms and dads, brothers and sisters, cookouts, co-workers, churches, synagogues, mosques are talking about hepatitis C and getting rid of the stigma,” Spencer said. “That people don’t have to be ashamed because they are dealing with addiction or a loved one.”
The third pillar is about strengthening the health care infrastructure. He said because of the disproportionate rate of HCV infection in West Virginia health care infrastructure needs to improve.
West Virginia is the fourth of five states to be part of the HepConnect initiative. Spencer said the program is already in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. In two weeks the program will launch in North Carolina.
“The Appalachian region is so disproportionately impacted by the intersection of the crisis between the opioid epidemic and transmission of hepatitis C,” Spencer said. “There’s been over a 300% increase in HCV between 2006 and 2012. So, Appalachian plus surrounding areas were chosen for that reason.”
