Warning of hepatitis C outbreak at Venezuelan dialysis centers

Venezuela celebrates World Hepatitis Day on July 28 this year due to the sub-diagnosis of hepatitis A and the outbreak of hepatitis C in different dialysis units in the country.

To expand the reach of diagnosis and treatment to save lives, this year’s celebration is under the slogan “One Life, One Liver”.

However, in the country, the public system is unable to detect different viruses and there has been an increase in hepatitis C in dialysis units.

Rosalia Perazzo, head of the gastroenterology department at the Dr. Miguel Perez Carreno Hospital, said hepatitis C has become an invisible disease in Venezuela. About 1% of the population may have the virus, but many people are unaware of it.

“Venezuela has no census and the Ministry of Health has no report on the disease. It is an invisible disease.

In some of the blood banks that reported their incidence, they told us it was about 1.2%. ” he said at a meeting organized by the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the Central University of Venezuela (IMT-UCV) and the Venezuelan Society of Infectious Diseases (SVI). ).

According to the Efecto Cocuyo portal, Perazzo stressed that hepatitis C has become a public health problem in recent years, with outbreaks in dialysis centers belonging to social security institutes in different regions of the country.

He emphasized that there are also non-dialysis patients with hepatitis C, such as patients with tumors or chronic diseases, who also need treatment but cannot get it. Outside of the project, there is no public level treatment.