| |
The Hidden Global Hepatitis C Epidemic - New Report - Access Needed
|
| |
| |
Download the PDF here
"Eastern Europe end Central Asia are home to the fastest growing hepatitis C and HIV epidemics and are largely being driven by injecting drug use" - new evidence-based document....addresses how the global war on drugs is fuelling the hepatitis C pandemic among people who use drugs......"Hepatitis C has to be one of the most grossly miscalculated diseases by governments on the planet,"......disproportionately impacts upon people who inject drugs....more than three times more prevalent than HIV among this population......Globally, most HIV-infected people who inject drugs are also living with a hepatitis C infection......Governments should ensure that people who use drugs are not excluded from treatment
programmes, by establishing national hepatitis C strategies and action plans" - pdf report attached
Media Release
Seven Former Presidents, Richard Branson and Other World Leaders: Criminalization of Drug Use Fuelling the Global Hepatitis C viral time bomb (Commissioners on Global Commission on Drug Policy listed below at end of report)
Global Commission on Drug Policy Calls for Decriminalization of Drug Use and Expansion of Proven, science-based Solutions to Reduce Hepatitis C - Including Sterile Syringe Access, Safer Injection Facilities and Prescription Heroin Programs.
Drug War Policies in U.S., Russia, and China Cause Millions of Needless Infections - globally, 10 out
of 16 million people who inject drugs have Hepatitis C
http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/
Thursday, 30 May 2013, (Geneva, Switzerland)--A hepatitis C epidemic fuelled by the "war on drugs" is sweeping amongst injecting drug users globally, says a new landmark report released today by the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Of the 16 million people who inject drugs around the world, an
estimated 10 million are living with hepatitis C. The report, entitled The Negative Impact of the War on Drugs on Public Health: The Hidden Hepatitis C Epidemic, condemns the drug war as a failure and recommends immediate, major reforms of the global drug prohibition regime to halt the spread of
hepatitis C infection and other drug war harms.
The launch of the report happens in advance of next week's 23rd International Harm Reduction Conference, taking place in Vilnius, Lithuania. Nearby Eastern Europe end Central Asia are home to the fastest growing hepatitis C and HIV epidemics and are largely being driven by injecting drug use.
The evidence-based document addresses how the global war on drugs is fuelling the hepatitis C pandemic among people who use drugs. Throughout the world, research has consistently shown that repressive drug law enforcement practices force drug users away from public health services and into
hidden environments where hepatitis C and HIV risk become markedly elevated. Mass incarceration of nonviolent drug users also plays a major role in spreading the pandemic.
"Hepatitis C has to be one of the most grossly miscalculated diseases by governments on the planet," said Commissioner Michel Kazatchkine, who is also the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. "It is a disgrace that barely a handful of countries can actually show significant declines in new infections of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs"
The hepatitis C virus is highly infectious and easily transmitted through blood-to-blood contact. It therefore disproportionately impacts upon people who inject drugs, and is more than three times more prevalent than HIV among this population. In some of the countries with the harshest drug policies, over 90% of people who inject drugs are living with hepatitis C, with highest numbers reported in China (1.6 million people), the Russian Federation (1.3 million people) and the USA (1.5 million people).
Globally, most HIV-infected people who inject drugs are also living with a hepatitis C infection. The hepatitis C virus causes debilitating and fatal disease in around a quarter of those who are chronically infected, and is an increasing cause of premature death among people who inject drugs. Harm reduction services - such as the provision of sterile needles and syringes and opioid substitution therapy - can effectively prevent hepatitis C transmission among people who inject drugs, provided
they are accessible and delivered early and at the required scale.
The report launched today further describes the remarkable failure of drug law enforcement policies in reducing the global illicit drug market, noting that the worldwide supply of illicit opiates, such as heroin, has increased by more than 380% in recent decades. Moreover, the drug war contributes to the growth of organized crime, violence and to the wide-scale incarceration of nonviolent drug users.
The report also depicts how a country like Lithuania (with 2,8% of the general population and 80% per cent of the drug injection population infected) despite positive progress in terms of the Government's free provision of hepatitis C treatment, is in fact only reaching 5% of those in need. In Ukraine, where 260,000 people who use drugs are infected with HCV, a National Hepatitis Program has recently been approved for the first time following intense advocacy efforts by civil society groups. Crucially, the price for treatments has been more than halved during negotiations with pharmaceutical companies.
"The war on drugs is a war on common sense", said Commissioner Ruth Dreifuss, who is also the former President of Switzerland. "Repressive drug policies are ineffective, violate basic human rights, generate violence and expose individuals and communities to unnecessary risks. The Hepatitis C epidemic, totally preventable and curable, is yet another proof that the drug policy status quo has failed us all miserably."
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM REPORT
The Negative Impact of the War on Drugs on Public Health: The Hidden Hepatitis C Epidemic
1. Governments should publicly acknowledge the importance of the hepatitis C epidemic and its significant human, economic and social costs, particularly among people who use drugs.
1. Governments must acknowledge that drug policy approaches dominated by strict law enforcement practices perpetuate the spread of hepatitis C (as well as HIV and other health harms). They do this by exacerbating the social marginalisation faced by people who use drugs,
and by undermining their access to essential harm reduction and treatment services.
1. Governments should therefore reform existing drug policies - ending the criminalisation and mass incarceration of people who use drugs, and the forced treatment of drug dependence.
1. Governments must immediately redirect resources away from the 'war on drugs' and into public health approaches that maximise hepatitis C prevention and care, developed with the involvement of, the most affected communities.
1. Drug policy effectiveness should be measured by indicators that have real meaning for affected communities, such as reduced rates of HIV and hepatitis transmission and mortality, increased service coverage and access, reduced drug market violence, reduced human rights
violations, and reduced incarceration.
1. Governments must remove any legal or de facto restrictions on the provision of sterile injection equipment and other harm reduction services, as well as opioid substitution therapy, in line with World Health Organisation guidance. It is critical that these services are delivered at the
scale required to impact upon hepatitis C transmission - both in the community but also in prisons and other closed settings.
1. Governments should ensure that people who use drugs are not excluded from treatment programmes, by establishing national hepatitis C strategies and action plans with the input of civil society, affected communities, and actors from across the HIV, public health, social policy, drug control and criminal justice sectors.
1. Governments must improve the quality and availability of data on hepatitis C, strengthening surveillance systems and better evaluating prevention and control programmes. This will, in turn,
help to raise political and public awareness of the epidemic.
1. Governments should enhance their efforts to reduce the costs of new and existing hepatitis C medicines - including through negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to ensure greater
treatment access for all those in need. Governments, international bodies and civil society organisations should seek to replicate the successful reduction in HIV treatment costs around the world, including the use of patent law flexibilities to make them more accessible.
1. The Global Commission calls upon the United Nations to demonstrate the necessary leadership and commitment to promote better national responses and achieve the reforms listed above.
1. Act urgently: The 'war on drugs' has failed, and significant public health harms can be averted if action is taken now.
Commissioners
Aleksander Kwasniewski
Former President of Poland
Asma Jahangir
Human rights activist, former UN Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Executions, Pakistan
Carlos Fuentes
Writer and public intellectual, Mexico - in memoriam
Cesar Gaviria
Former President of Colombia
Ernesto Zedillo
Former President of Mexico
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Former President of Brazil (chair)
George Papandreou
Former Prime Minister of Greece
George Shultz
Former Secretary of State, United States (honorary chair)
Javier Solana
Former European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Spain
John Whitehead
Banker and civil servant, chair of the World Trade Center Memorial, United States
Jorge Sampaio
Former President of Portugal
Kofi Annan
Former Secretary General of the United Nations, Ghana
Louise Arbour
Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, president of the International Crisis Group, Canada
Maria Cattaui
Former Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce, Switzerland
Mario Vargas Llosa
Writer and public intellectual, Peru
Michel Kazatchkine
Professor of medicine, former Executive director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria
Paul Volcker
Former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve and of the Economic Recovery Board, US
Pavel Bem
Former Mayor of Prague, member of the Parliament, Czech Republic
Ricardo Lagos
Former president of Chile
Richard Branson
Entrepreneur, advocate for social causes, founder of the Virgin Group, cofounder of The Elders, United Kingdom
Ruth Dreifuss
Former President of Switzerland and Minister of Home Affairs
Thorvald Stoltenberg
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Norway
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
