General manager public health, Carmen Duranhas appeared in 5th Commission on Health, Social Policy and Employmentwho reviewed the first nine months of implementation strategy Eliminating Hepatitis C as a Disease Problem public health of galician sunta. A total of 63,000 tests were reported, with 83 active cases of infection found in the community.
The general manager stated that one of the main measures of the strategy is the implementation of opportunistic population screening and provide early detection testing Hepatitis C. In this context, health department It has been offering early detection tests for the virus to people aged 40 to 69 since the beginning of the year.
The purpose of the strategy is to promote and coordinate the actions necessary to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health problem in Galicia.
This will be done gradually over three years, taking advantage of opportunities that arise when analytical testing is required at health centers for other reasons. In 2023, the target group includes people aged 50-59, with plans to expand screening to people aged 60-69 in 2024, and to people aged 40-49 in 2025.
The strategy aims to promote and coordinate the necessary actions to eliminate Hepatitis C as a public health issue Galicia. to this end, health department Carry out actions affecting the prevention, detection, epidemiological surveillance, treatment or training and research of the disease.
Therefore, people who are guaranteed to achieve positive results Hepatitis C Treatments are administered up to 21 days apart, ordering of tests and electronic notification of results are automated and include systematic testing of pregnant women during the first trimester of pregnancy.
This initiative is the result of cooperation between the two parties General Administration of Public Health and Selgasconverted to Galicia Be a model for the rest of the world to follow.Additionally, the program is sponsored by the Ministry of Health Looking for a tower It will be possible to advance the goals set out by the Commission within four years World Health Organization (WHO).
on the other hand, General Administration of Public Health Work continues on different aspects of improvement to be able to optimize the diagnosis and identification of new cases of hepatitis C. Some of these involve the use of artificial intelligence and big data.
in some meaning, department Algorithms are being developed with three objectives, one of which is to detect people with previously confirmed active infection but who have not received treatment, and the other of which is to detect positive cases whose viral load has not yet been determined and therefore cannot confirm or rule out active infection. Finally, they tried to identify patients who had received treatment regimens based on: Interferon And treatments have not yet been documented.
Sunta Health Department also focuses on strengthening pathological testing of high-risk groups.
Thanks to new technologies, all areas of healthcare will have a list of candidates who can be contacted to study their clinical situations and treatment recommendations. The use of data will allow us to improve epidemiological surveillance of this disease, actively search for new cases, and establish patterns and profiles that aid early detection.
In turn, the health department Looking for a tower It also affects the detection of pathology in high-risk populations. In this way, it is advancing programs to ensure testing and treatment of Galicia’s prison population, in addition to continuing to focus on drug users and continuing to implement syringe exchange programs or distribute condoms.
In summary, Carmen Duran Stressed the importance of raising awareness of this infection among citizens and professionals and stressed Galician School of Public Health.